NUMC breaks ground on new Emergency Dept.

Construction has officially begun on the Nassau University Medical Center’s new Emergency Department, a cornerstone of modernization efforts, by NuHealth, formerly known as the Nassau Health Care Corporation.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday morning at NUMC’s campus in East Meadow.

According to NuHealth President and CEO Arthur Gianelli, the department had not undergone a major renovation since 1974. “This is the elite Emergency Department on Long Island,” Gianelli said, “yet it’s housed in a facility that has been antiquated for years.”

The $14.9 million reconstruction will expand the department from 26,000 to 45,000 square feet of the hospital’s ground and first floors. An additional $5 million will be devoted to improving accessibility to the Emergency Department from Hempstead Turnpike.

The renovation will also include much-needed technological upgrades at the Nassau County Police Department’s Medical Control Unit,inside the NUMC. “We are a tremendous user of the NUMC and are looking forward to using the new Emergency Department,” said Majorie Blieka, deputy inspector of the police department’s Emergency Ambulance Bureau.

Plans also include a new radiology imaging center, which will feature a state-of-the-art 320-slice CT scanner, the only one of its kind in use locally.

The expansion will use existing space on the east side of the tower, most of which once housed staff dining and meeting rooms. Those rooms have been temporarily relocated to other parts of the facility. “The amazing thing about this project is that it will utilize space that was underutilized for years,” Gianelli said.

The first floor will include adult and pediatric care, Level I critical care and the imaging center. The adult and pediatric fast track program, prisoner treatment area and expanded facilities for emergency behavioral health will occupy the ground floor.