Long Beach Medical Center sale finalized

South Nassau Communities Hospital, after receiving a formal promise of reimbursements from the federal government for more than $176 million, has purchased the long-shuttered, Sandy-damaged Long Beach Medical Center, Richard Murphy, chief executive for the Oceanside hospital, said last Friday.

The $11.7 million sale was finalized five months after a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge approved it. The 162-bed Long Beach facility has been closed since Superstorm Sandy in October 2012. The sale allows South Nassau to move forward with its takeover of the facility and the establishment of a free-standing emergency department, Murphy said.

Murphy said he received a confirmation letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency last week informing him that South Nassau was eligible for $176.9 million to rebuild the Long Beach facility.

“That was the last step in the process,” Murphy said. ”We are working with the state on a plan to begin a program in Long Beach to restore vital health care services.”

The federal funds allow the hospital to move ahead with plans to open a freestanding emergency department and other outpatient facilities and programs on the barrier island.

Murphy said that, as part of the deal, more than 440 former Long Beach hospital employees would be reimbursed for accrued vacation time, amounting to more than $1 million. An engineer’s report, due in about a week, will determine whether the damaged Long Beach emergency can be used. If that is the case, Murphy said, an emergency department could be operating in Long Beach within six months. If the entire facility has to be razed and a new emergency department built, the project could take 18-24 months. Either way, Murphy said he is excited.

“Residents are going to be getting a 21st Century, state-of-the-art medical facility,” he said.

The sale closing was initially expected to be completed in June. 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 at the hospital to reopen, including the west wing’s emergency department, was completed in June 2013.

But the state Health Department blocked the cash-strapped facility from reopening, saying that it had lost more than $2 million per year since 2008. The Health Department called for LBMC to merge with another hospital, and LBMC and South Nassau have been negotiating an asset-purchase agreement since last year.

Anthony Rifilato contributed to this story.