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Fair SNCH to expand Oceanside campus
South Nassau Communities Hospital just unveiled its plans to expand its main Oceanside campus, as well as finalized renderings of the Medical Arts Pavilion it is building to replace the Long Beach Medical Center.
Executives from SNCH came to the Herald offices last week to discuss the plans. The Oceanside campus will have a four-story, 58,000-square-foot expansion which will enlarge the overcrowded emergency room, add seven new operating rooms and expand the ICU to add up to 24 new critical care beds.
Additionally, the hospital has finalized the plans for the Medical Arts Pavilion in Long Beach, which will replace the hospital that was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy. The 25,000-square-foot building will be an emergency center designed to accommodate 12,000 to 18,000 patients per year, and will be designed to expand if the need arises.
“Our goal is to develop broad, ambulatory regional care with South Nassau as the hub,” said Richard Murphy, president and CEO of SNCH.
The expansion and the pavilion are both being funded with $154 million that SNCH received from FEMA after Sandy when it purchased Long Beach Medical Center, as well as upwards of $70 million in the hospital’s own capital.
The main building of the South Nassau network, located on Merrick Road in Oceanside, was last expanded in 2006 when the hospital added a new north wing, which is now the main entrance of the building.
The newest expansion is called the southwest addition, and would be located in the rear of the building. However, there are also plans to add a new central utility plant and emergency electrical infrastructure upgrades. These additions would allow the hospital to keep function in the case of a natural disaster, and will be built to withstand another hurricane like Sandy.
For South Nassau, the expansion is needed direly. The hospital’s emergency department is designed to handle 35,000 visits per year, but actually takes in around 67,000. The expansion would expand the emergency department from 16,000 to 30,000 square feet, allowing the hospital to see more patients in better settings.
