Report: LBMC buildings not suitable for emergency department

South Nassau advised against reopening facility for medical services

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South Nassau Communities Hospital announced Monday that it is unable to use the Long Beach Medical Center’s west and main buildings, because the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy is too extensive. A report released this week found that making the necessary repairs and modifications in order to meet code requirements to reopen the West Wing’s emergency department would take too much time and money.

SNCH acquired the medical center last year for $11.8 million. The sale was finalized in October, after SNCH reached an agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Sandy aid and agreed to redevelop health care services in Long Beach and the surrounding communities.

Last year, South Nassau hired New Orleans-based Blitch Knevel Architects to conduct an independent assessment of the LBMC campus and its facilities to determine where a new emergency department could be built, and to develop an alternative-use plan for $154 million in FEMA funds.

The 162-bed LBMC closed after 10 feet of water flooded its basement during Sandy, causing roughly $100 million in damage. All of the major work to allow two of five wings to reopen, the west and main buildings, was completed in June 2013, at a cost of approximately $26 million. LBMC received $17 million from FEMA for that work, in addition to insurance reimbursements and grants.

South Nassau announced last week that it plans to convert its urgent-care center, which opened on the LBMC campus at 325 East Bay Drive, last year, into a free-standing emergency department by July 1. The project would cost $4.5 million, and the facility would operate 24 hours a day and accept ambulances.

For months, South Nassau had been considering converting the urgent-care center into a free-standing emergency department, at least temporarily, until a more permanent facility was constructed, either at LBMC’s West Wing or elsewhere in Long Beach.

This week, Blitch Knevel released a report that said reopening the west and main buildings for medical purposes is not advisable due to “outstanding code and structural deficiencies.”

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