First Phase of $60 million Emergency Department Expansion is Completed

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - Oct. 5, 2017 - PRLog -- A new 10-bed unit designed to reduce wait times in South Nassau Communities Hospital's Emergency Department is set to open following a $4.5 million renovation, completing the first phase of a multi-year construction effort to expand a critical area of the hospital that serves 65,000 patients a year on the South Shore.

The newly renovated Emergency Department annex, which previously was used for storage, will help maintain emergency service to the community as other parts of the Oceanside Emergency Department are renovated and expanded.

         "This is the first step in our plan to increase efficiency and enhance quality of care to effectively meet the needs of the communities we serve," said Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau's president and CEO. "It will help patients who visit the ED have a more comfortable and less stressful experience."

         "The Emergency Department is really our front door," Murphy added. "Some 75 percent of all our inpatients come through the ED. It is undersized for the number of patients we see every year, which is why we are so focused on expanding and improving this space."

         South Nassau is in the midst of a capital campaign designed to raise $10 million from supporters and the community to help fund the $60 million cost of the expansion. The five year campaign has raised $6.9 million to date.

"We are putting the funds we have raised from donors to work with this 10-bed addition, which will have an immediate impact on improving the patient experience," said Joseph Fennessy, Chairman of South Nassau's Board of Directors. "We have much more to do but it is gratifying to see the first phase of our plans come to fruition."

The extension is designed to facilitate communication between patients and companions and emergency department staff, with the nurses and doctors' station facing the semi-private treatment bays and only open floor space between the bays and station to allow for clear lines of sight.  The treatment bays are equipped with monitored beds, cardiac monitors, bedside laboratory testing capability and furnished with individual high-definition, flat-screen TVs.  Additional features of the extension include a dedicated waiting area for families and loved ones, rest rooms and access to free Wi-Fi.

South Nassau's Emergency Department is the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County and is one of the busiest hospital emergency rooms in Nassau County serving over 900,000 residents of the South Shore from Queens to Suffolk.  , The department's staff includes board-certified, residency-trained emergency medicine physicians as well as nurses and physicians' assistants who have been specially-trained in emergency medical care.  The department also is a New York State Department of Health regional Stroke Center.. In addition to 35 treatment bays, the department has specialty treatment areas as well as its own dedicated Computerized Radiology Suite for rapid access for testing and results.

When the multi-phase expansion is completed, the 16,000-square-foot Emergency Department – which was built to accommodate 35,000 patients a year but is currently serving 65,000 patients annually – will nearly double in size to the size of a football field and have the capacity to see approximately 80,000 patients annually.  Expansion plans call for a centralized nursing station for direct oversight of patient rooms; bedside triage; expanded trauma treatment areas with an adjoining radiology area; a decontamination room; dedicated observation area for behavioral health; and an enlarged waiting area.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for outstanding nursing care, South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region's largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,500 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.

In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau operates the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as well as Long Island's only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. South Nassau also is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons, and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.

In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission's gold seal of approval for disease-specific care for hip and knee replacement, heart failure, bariatric surgery, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.