The annual award is presented to hospitals and organizations that collect more than 500 pints of blood during the year. In 2006, South Nassau held four blood drives that, when combined, totaled 1,212 units of blood.
³At South Nassau, we understand that donating blood is one more way for us to fulfill our mission of meeting the health care needs of the residents of the South Shore communities,² said Joseph A. Quagliata, president and CEO of South Nassau. ³I applaud all those who respond to the public need for blood donations.²
This is not the first time that South Nassau has been honored for achieving a high employee blood donation participation rate. In 2005, South Nassau held four blood drives and collected 1,257 units of blood, and was awarded the Long Island Blood Service¹s Diamond Award. The Diamond Award is presented to hospitals and organizations that host two or more blood drives per year and which result in above-average employee participation rates and a high total of blood donations.
In 2004, the hospital received the Gold Medal Award from America¹s Blood Centers for its efforts in raising awareness of the need for blood donation and its support of community blood drive programs. South Nassau finished first among Long Island hospitals for employee blood donations in 2002 to win Vytra Health Plans¹ Hospital Blood Donor Campaign Championship.
South Nassau¹s leadership in collecting blood donations is accentuated by its partnership with Long Island Blood Services to promote donations at the LIBS Donor Center in Rockville Centre. The partnership was the first of its kind in the U.S. South Nassau provides promotional support and outreach assistance through its existing community relationships and the production and implementation of collateral materials that promote blood donation.
South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region¹s largest hospitals with 441 beds, more than 820 physicians and 2,300 employees. Located in Oceanside, the hospital is an acutecare, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center, boasts Long Island¹s first Gamma Knife and is one of five hospitals in New York without an open heart surgery program permitted to perform angioplasty in an emergency or as an elective procedure. It is also recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society of Bariatric Surgery.
LIJ to open first phase of new emergency department
LIJ Medical Center recently celebrated the completion of construction on the first phase of a $34 million renovation and expansion project that will double the size of the hospital¹s Emergency Department (ED).
The Phyllis and William Mack Emergency Center includes 18,500 square-feet of new space that is expected to be opened to the public later this summer, pending approval by the state Department of Health. The second phase of construction includes the renovation of an additional 18,000 square-feet of space currently occupied by the ED.
When fully completed in 2008, the 36,500-square-foot Mack Emergency Center will features 41 private exam rooms, including 23 for acute-care patients, eight ³fast-track² rooms (patients with injuries and illnesses that are less severe), and 10 for pediatric and adult psychiatric patients.
³At LIJ, we currently treat about 65,000 patients a year in a facility that was built to accommodate 40,000. Within the next five years, we expect 75,000 patients will be coming through our ED,² said Michael J. Dowling, president and chief executive officer of the North Shore-LIJ Health System. ³This new facility will provide patients and their families with the utmost comfort and privacy, and go a long way toward reducing waiting times.²
The new facility also offers patients and family members a new, more accessible parking lot next to the drop-off area, as well as a waiting area that has been expanded into a two-story, light-filled lobby with living room-style features. Of special note, a new decontamination area has been built directly off the ambulance dock to treat individuals who may be victims of a catastrophic event, such as a bioterrorism or chemical attack. The area includes shower stalls set-up for decontamination stations that drain into an independent reservoir.
Thomas Kwiatkowski, MD, chairman of emergency medicine at LIJ, noted that the nature of emergency room care has changed dramatically in recent decades, with more and more people viewing the ED as their primary care provider, especially the rapidly growing immigrant communities across Queens and Nassau counties, the elderly and the uninsured. ³Considering that about 40 percent of all hospital admissions come through the ED, this expansion will allow us to better meet the needs of the diverse communities served by LIJ in Queens and Nassau counties,² he said.
The project would not have been possible without the Mack family, in whose honor the new facility is named. The Macks have been generous supporters of LIJ for decades. In fact, Mr. Mack¹s father, H. Bert Mack, was one of the founding benefactors of LIJ in the late 1940s, prior to its opening in 1954.
