Thursday, October 1, 2026
Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital marked an expansion in pediatric health services on March 19 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the opening of a new pediatric sleep program in collaboration with Cohen Children’s Medical Center.
Three newly designated pediatric rooms within the hospital’s existing sleep center have been established, and the program officially began conducting pediatric sleep studies on March 20.
The initiative had been in development for several months, hospital administrators said. Jason Tan, the Valley Stream hospital’s president, described the expansion as part of a broader effort to grow services and better meet community needs.
The hospital had opened its adult sleep center about a year earlier, with a long-term vision of eventually adding pediatric care. When the opportunity arose to collaborate with Cohen, the hospital moved forward with adapting the space and addressing regulatory requirements.
The addition brings a new service to the Valley Stream area, where access to pediatric sleep care has been limited. Tan indicated that the collaboration enables the hospital to offer specialized care supported by experienced pediatric staff and physician leadership.
“I think it’s a reflection of our continued expansion of different levels of care at the hospital,” Tan said. “We are continuously looking to improve our care, enhance our care and find new ways to serve the community.”
Dr. Sanjeev Kothare, director of the division of pediatric neurology and co-director of the pediatric sleep program at Cohen, said the decision to relocate the program was driven by changing space needs at the children’s hospital, where oncology services are expanding.
“It makes more sense to move over there, and it’s convenient,” Kothare said of Valley Stream, “not only for Long Island, but also for Queens patients to come over.”
At the new location, pediatric patients will be monitored on four beds across six nights each week, increasing the number of sleep studies that can be performed compared to the previous setup.
The studies will take place Tuesday through Sunday nights, with the lab closed on Mondays. Additional daytime nap studies are expected to be conducted on weekends to help evaluate conditions such as excessive daytime sleepiness.
The program is designed to address a range of sleep-related conditions, including obstructive sleep apnea and neurological disorders. Kothare noted that the facility will also offer combined sleep studies and electroencephalogram monitoring for certain patients, allowing for simultaneous evaluation of sleep and neurological activity, a capability not widely available in the region.
“The pediatric team is the same team, whether at Cohen’s or at Valley Stream. We are just moving our technical staff,” Kothare said. “We will be interpreting the study no matter what, because we interpret them remotely. Everything is on the computer in my office, and I can see everything that’s going on there, sitting in my office.”
At the Valley Stream hospital, a team will manage the in-person aspects of care. Fernanda Fanek, director of the hospital’s sleep center, said staff will conduct studies, monitor patients and remain in communication with physicians, who will review results remotely through a centralized system. This model reflects how the hospital currently operates its adult sleep program.
The expansion builds on the success of the adult sleep center, which has completed hundreds of studies since opening, according to Fanek. The addition of pediatric services follows strong demand and the opportunity to partner with an established pediatric program.
“We’re excited to be providing the service to the community more locally,” Fanek said. “Hopefully, it’ll improve accessibility, and we’ll just be able to message it out more to our communities about the importance of sleep hygiene in children. We hope to leverage this to do more teaching in schools and our local community as well.”
The three pediatric rooms have been designed with children in mind, incorporating a space-themed aesthetic intended to create a more comfortable environment. The design mirrors the setup previously used at Cohen to help patients and families feel familiar. Equipment in the pediatric rooms is specifically tailored for children and supports comprehensive monitoring.
The location also allows families to benefit from the hospital’s broader resources, including emergency care, if needed, hospital administrators said.
