Beach to Bay continues push for a hospital

Officials say state Health Department unlikely to approve a local inpatient facility

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Elected officials and members of the Beach to Bay Central Council of Civic Associations met privately with representatives of the state Department of Health in Manhattan on July 26 to discuss the future of medical services on the barrier island.

The meeting, organized by State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, was held after Beach to Bay — a group that has been advocating for the rebuilding of a local hospital — filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Federal Emergency Management Agency over the proposed use of South Nassau Communities Hospital’s $154 million in FEMA funding originally earmarked for Long Beach Medical Center to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.  

In 2014, SNCH acquired the medical center for $11.8 million following a bankruptcy proceeding. The asset sale was finalized after South Nassau reached an agreement with FEMA on Sandy aid and agreed to redevelop health care services in Long Beach and surrounding communities.

South Nassau officials have explained that under “alternative use” legislation introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer after Sandy, the hospital can also use the funding to bolster services and infrastructure at its Oceanside campus, which officials say is direly needed.

SNCH intends to establish an ambulance-receiving emergency department and medical pavilion on the property using $40 million of the FEMA funding, a move that has sparked the ire of Beach to Bay and residents who say that the proposed facility would not meet community needs and that the money should be used to rebuild a hospital in Long Beach. Members of Beach to Bay are seeking an injunction to halt the distribution of the funds and an advisory opinion from the court to determine whether the money is being used appropriately.

Among the issues discussed at the meeting was whether the Health Department would approve the rebuilding of a hospital that would be smaller than LBMC if it were financially viable.

“The purpose of the meeting was to see if the Department of Health would approve a hospital,” said Francis McQuade, an attorney representing Beach to Bay who did not attend the meeting. “[W]e were trying to evaluate … who would support what we’re supporting and who wouldn’t. Our suit is to get the commitment of the FEMA money on the Long Beach campus. The goal of suit is to make sure the money stays in Long Beach.”

Health Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. People with knowledge of the meeting, however, said that it is highly unlikely that the state would approve even a smaller hospital facility without a viable financial plan and at a time when regional hospitals with local ambulatory hubs is the trend in health care.

In addition to several members of Beach to Bay and Kaminsky, others who attended the meeting included Health Department Deputy Commissioner Daniel Sheppard, County Legislator Denise Ford, City Councilwoman Anissa Moore, at least two local first responders and a representative from the city manager’s office.

Ford, who, along with U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, recently announced her support for South Nassau’s plan, said that rewinding a process that began two years ago in U.S. Bankruptcy Court would be extremely difficult.

“The New York state Department of Health said that it’s very unlikely — even if there was a plan to put in a hospital — that it would give the final OK,” said Ford. “And South Nassau owns the property, so it’s not like it’s up for grabs.”

Ford added that while she would like to see, and has called for, a hospital, the focus should now be on adding more services and incentives to attract doctors at the medical pavilion.

“Without residents pushing for something to be built there, we probably wouldn’t even get a medical pavilion,” Ford said. “What we’re looking to do moving forward is to find people to work with South Nassau and start bringing in services to focus on keeping people healthy. It is a tough pill to swallow — I for one really wanted a hospital there, but when the writing is on the wall, let’s start creating something down there.”

Kaminsky said that his goal is to guarantee that barrier island residents have access to adequate medical care.

“While details of the new medical arts pavilion are being discussed, I see no reason why it could not be a robust medical center that will attract world class doctors,” he said.

At odds over medical pavilion

The medical pavilion was proposed last year, and its emergency department would operate 24 hours a day, and receive 911 calls. It is expected to open in June 2019, pending a series of approvals by the state Health Department, FEMA and local governments.

Prior to its closure, 90 percent of patients on the barrier island were taken by ambulance to LBMC. Trauma patients were transported to either SNCH or Nassau University Medical Center, while pediatric medical emergencies were taken to South Nassau and burn patients to NUMC.

Stroke patients, however, were transported to, and treated at, LBMC, but those patients are now taken to South Nassau. However, if, say, a relative rushes a loved one who has suffered a stroke or other serious injury to the new facility, doctors there can stabilize the patient on site before transferring him or her to another hospital.

To date, the temporary emergency department, which South Nassau opened on the property last year, has seen more than 8,000 patients, 88 percent of whom were treated and released without leaving the barrier island.

Beach to Bay maintains that South Nassau’s proposed facility in Long Beach would not meet the needs of residents, citing its inability to accept patients by ambulance suffering from certain “time critical” medical conditions, including trauma, stroke, hip fractures, difficult pregnancies and other emergencies, not to mention the barrier island’s isolated geography and accessibility by three drawbridges that often snarl traffic.

An encouraging meeting?

Beach to Bay President Barbara Bernardino said that the meeting with the Health Department was encouraging.

“It was encouraging to us — it wasn’t a definitive no,” she said. “The state said we can’t make South Nassau do anything, but the point is they have to sign off on the alternative plan as well as FEMA. With the lawsuit — right now we’re arguing that not enough FEMA money is coming here. The money was meant to give us back the medical services that we had lost.”

According to an independent study commissioned by South Nassau, even before LBMC closed, South Nassau was the largest provider of inpatient services to barrier island residents. The study — whose findings have been challenged by Beach to Bay — concluded that a full-service hospital on the barrier island would not be sustainable, and would lose money every year.

Members of Beach to Bay maintain that a smaller hospital with specialized services could be financially viable, and cited Syosset Hospital as a model.

Moore, who has called for the FEMA money to be invested in the rebuilding of a hospital, said, "I didn’t really get the feeling that [the state Health Department] were going to change their minds."

"The Department of Health acknowledged the advocacy work of the Beach to Bay organization," Moore said. "They made it clear that no one has presented a hospital model that has been economically sound, and that has been the entire challenge. They gave us the feeling that they were not going to approve anything that was not economically sound.”

South Nassau said that based on community input, it intends to add a third floor to the medical pavilion and would double its size from 25,000 square feet to more than 50,000. The facility would include primary care services and an outpatient dialysis unit with 12 to 16 beds, a radiology unit, a wound-care program and outpatient pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation services, among other services that were not initially included in the plan.

Members of Beach to Bay said that South Nassau did not provide the group with specific details about their plans, which in part prompted the group to move forward with its suit.

“We made some progress in our discussions with South Nassau, but the problem is that in our last meeting we asked if they could be more specific," said Beach to Bay member Ed Glister. “We asked the Department of Health if they could somehow broker a discussion as to what the specifics are that South Nassau has committed to.”

Joe Calderone, a spokesman for South Nassau, said that hospital officials held many detailed discussions with Beach to Bay.

“We had half a dozen very detailed meetings with Beach to Bay representatives and we thought we were close to some kind of a meeting of the minds,” he said. “We were taken aback by their action. During these discussions, we presented pretty detailed descriptions of what kind of services we are planning to provide in the mid-term and in the long term.”