Hospital needs new wings

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A sweeping set of recommendations to restructure hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state was released in 2006. Known as the Berger Report, it said that approximately 40,000 residents live in Long Beach and its adjacent island communities. “There is a relatively large concentration of nursing homes, adult homes and assisted living facilities in Long Beach, and 16 percent of the population is over 65 years old,” the report states. “Because of the concentration of health care and housing facilities for the elderly, summer-time surges in population, recreational and boating facilities, geographical isolation and dependence on draw bridges to access the main land, LBMC, despite its size and unstable financial situation, must remain open so that the community has appropriate access to emergency services and acute care.”

In January, the state’s Public Health and Health Planning Council provided recommendations for free-standing emergency departments in New York. Such facilities must be owned by a hospital, adhere to the same standards as a hospital-based emergency department, be able to receive patients from ambulances, establish protocols with EMS to insure the transfer of patients needing higher level of care, and generally operate 24/7, although part-time operations can be allowed.

In the next 60 days, FEMA will announce that the costs associated with damage to LBMC as a result of Sandy is $150 million — the total value of the hospital. That figure represents the 1,400 employees, many of whom lost their cars, homes, personal possessions and jobs. That figure represents the doctors on the barrier island who were forced to close down their medical practices as the result of LBMC’s closure.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced that FEMA would release $138 million to South Nassau. That money be spent on new wings at the hospital, or departments that could house a 24/7, 911 ambulance-receiving emergency room, specializing in trauma, pediatric care, and surgical intensive care; MRI and labs supporting an emergency department; and the reopening of a state-of-the-art dialysis department that was established at LBMC months before Sandy hit. Such a facility could be SNCH’s crown jewel in Long Beach.

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