Emergency facility hits a snag

Red tape delays opening of SNCH's temporary E.D.

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U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice and local officials called on federal regulators Wednesday to approve South Nassau Communities Hospital’s request to open and operate a 24-hour, 911-receiving emergency department in Long Beach at 325 E. Bay Drive, the site of a recently upgraded urgent-care center.

Though the facility has received approval to open by the state Department of Health, the project has been tied up by red tape at the federal level, officials said. SNCH had originally planned to open the emergency department by July 1, after an $8 million upgrade to the Long Beach Urgent Care Center, but has not received approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A federal waiver of the facility’s newly installed emergency backup power system is needed before SNCH can operate it as a free-standing emergency department.

SNCH took over health care services in Long Beach last year, after the Long Beach Medical Center was shuttered — and later declared bankruptcy — after Hurricane Sandy. For months, SNCH officials said they were hopeful they could convert the urgent-care center, which opened on the campus last year, into an emergency department in time for the summer.

“This community is still being victimized by Superstorm Sandy, and it’s a crime,” Rice said at a press conference on Wednesday. “There is no reason [Long Beach] should have to go another summer without an emergency department.”

According to SNCH’s senior vice president of communications, Joe Calderone, among the upgrades to the urgent-care center was the installation of a Type 3 emergency backup electrical system, with a generator that runs on natural gas and an electrical battery backup that can provide additional power for up to 90 minutes.

However, the CMS views the facility as a full-fledged hospital, officials said, and is requiring the installation of a Type 1 power-generating system — “an uninterrupted source of power” — in the event that service from National Grid should be interrupted, rendering the gas generator useless. A Type 1 system would have a generator powered by diesel or propane.

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