By JOSEPH KELLARD
Standing behind a podium sporting a placard that read "Expert care without the commute," South Nassau President and CEO Joseph Quagliata stressed that due to the need for advanced, interventional cardiology services in Nassau County, the Oceanside-based hospital has brought the standard of high-level care to the South Shore that is enjoyed elsewhere on Long Island.
Quagliata spoke to more than 150 nurses, doctors, administrators and local officials - including Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford, Hempstead Town Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, Rockville Centre Mayor Mary Bossart and East Rockaway Mayor Ed Seiban - in the north wing's lobby conference room. Dr. Jason Freeman, director of interventional cardiology, thanked the hospital administrators and others for making the center a reality. "And the reality is that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the United States," Freeman said, "and that's true in Nassau, too."
One in three adults experience some form of cardiovascular disease - including heart attack and stroke - in the U.S., and roughly 41 percent of all deaths in Nassau County are attributable to some form of heart disease, according to the American Heart Association.
Both Freeman and Quagliata said the new center would provide the same "gold standard" of cardiac care to South Shore patients who would otherwise have to travel to such hospitals as North Shore-LIJ in Manhasset, St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn or Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola. "People can now get the same exact advanced care in their own communities," Freeman said.
"The effect on the family is emotionally draining," Quagliata later said about South Shore families that, besides the stress of dealing with sick loved ones, must travel daily to mid-island or the North Shore to visit them in a hospital.
During a tour of the new 21,000-square-foot cardiac center in the hospital's north wing, Freeman said, "It's all about how fast you can treat a heart attack. The faster, the less damage there is to the heart."
The center features two state-of-the-art digital cardiac catheterization rooms equipped with the latest in digital cardiovascular and interventional imaging systems for carotid stenting, vascular and interventional procedures and a wide range of peripheral procedures, including balloon angioplasty and thrombolytic therapy. It also includes 18 dedicated preparation/recovery spaces, decentralized nursing stations, doctors' offices, examination rooms, family waiting areas and conference rooms.
Future expansion will increase the center's size to roughly 32,000 square feet and include a third cardiac catheterization laboratory, an electrophysiology laboratory where patients will be implanted with pacemakers and defibrillators, and a minor procedure room. These final two phases will be completed by year's end, Freeman said.
When South Nassau opened its $93 million, five-story north wing in early 2006, hospital officials were already planning to establish a state-of-the-art medical facility for heart care services in the units that were vacated and moved to the new wing. That July, South Nassau was selected by the New York State Department of Health to participate in a statewide pilot program that allows selected hospitals without open-heart surgical programs to perform elective angioplasty.
The hospital's cardiac initiative began in October 2006, with the launch of its elective coronary angioplasty program. South Nassau successfully performed its first elective angioplasty on Oct. 16. During the following five weeks, doctors performed more than 40 elective angioplasty procedures and more than 175 cardiac catheterization procedures, hospital officials said. In 2007, South Nassau conducted more than 1,600 cardiac procedures, Freeman said.
Last year, in its report on patient outcomes in cardiac surgery and interventions, the Department of Health awarded Freeman its highest ranking - double asterisk status - for his success rate in angioplasty. South Nassau is the only South Shore hospital capable of providing advanced comprehensive cardiac care, performing both emergency and non-emergency angioplasty, which is used to unblock clogged arteries in the heart and often makes invasive procedures, such as open-heart surgery, unnecessary.
"We continue to bring the very best in cardiac care - period," Quagliata said.
Last October, state Sens. Dean Skelos and Charles Fuschillo presented a $500,000 check to South Nassau, a grant allotted from the senators' discretionary portion of the state budget, which helped fund the hospital's cardiac catheterization laboratories. Quagliata said that the hospital would continue to seek the financial support of public officials and private backers to maintain and advance its cardiac program.
Calling the cardiac care center "the jewel of the crown" of South Nassau, its chairman of the Board of Directors, Harold Mahoney, said, "We have a new crusade this spring: to bring the rest of the hospital up to modern standards in technology and services, as this [north wing] building symbolizes."
For more information about the Center for Cardiovascular Health, call 1-877-South-Nassau.
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
Photos by Ron Manfredi/Herald
