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Mostly Cloudy City Council calls on state to update Berger Report
Urges Health Department to conduct needs 'assessment'
The Long Beach City Council last week renewed its call on the state Department of Health to update a 2006 report used as the basis to restructure hospitals across the state, and recommended that the Long Beach Medical Center remain open and operate as a smaller facility.
In a letter to State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, the council urged the Health Department to follow up on the report’s findings by commissioning a similar independent study to address the need for local hospital services. “We strongly believe that all of the hospital facilities our barrier island needs and deserves should be restored,” the council wrote. “We are writing to renew our call to update the decade-old Berger Report to independently determine the medical needs of our community.”
The council also said it was pleased that South Nassau Communities Hospital, which acquired LBMC last year, intends to establish a $30 million to $40 million Medical Arts Pavilion with an off-campus emergency department. Though it would not be a full-service hospital, the proposed 30,000-square-foot facility would operate 24 hours a day, receive 911 calls, and might also provide services such as family medicine, dialysis, pediatrics, behavioral health, physical therapy and ambulatory surgery.
If it is approved, construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months. In the meantime, South Nassau is in the process of converting its urgent-care center into a temporary emergency department, which is slated to open by July 1.
The council called on Zucker to update the a state report titled “A Plan to Stabilize and Strengthen New York’s Health Care System: Final Report of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century,” which was released nine years ago. Better known as the Berger Report, it offered a sweeping set of recommendations to restructure hospitals and nursing homes throughout the state.
