The front of Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Outpatient Dialysis Center on Oceanside Road filled with folding chairs, AI-generated original music and barbecue on Aug.15 as staff, patients and family gathered to mark the clinic’s 25th anniversary.
What began as a three-station clinic a quarter century ago has grown into an 18-chair facility that conducts thousands of life-sustaining treatments each year.
Administrators, nurses and patients used the anniversary event Friday to reflect on the center’s evolution, celebrate longtime relationships and spotlight an expanding slate of services — including home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis — that give patients greater flexibility and, in some cases, better outcomes.
“We started with three patients, three stations, now we’re up to 18 stations,” said Zapora Burillo, director of nursing for dialysis services.
The center runs six days a week, Monday through Saturday, from 5 a.m. until midnight, in four shifts. Staff estimated the operation performs roughly 20,000 treatments a year and has treated thousands of people over 25 years.
For many at the barbecue the human side of the clinic was the most important part of the celebration. Maryann Giovinco, 78, an Inwood resident who has been coming to the Oceanside center three days a week for 20 years, was featured as the day’s honored guest. Surrounded by nurses who joked that she “knows everybody’s birthday,” Giovinco called the staff her “second family.”
“It takes time,” she said, recalling the difficult early months of dialysis. “There are people who just don’t get it. They’re not happy. But you have to be happy.”
Nurses and trainers at the center described close bonds that form through thrice-weekly treatments.
“The staff knows the patient’s life story,” Burillo said. “Patients confide in them.”
Vivian Rodriguez, a nurse who regularly cares for Giovinco.
“She comes in quarter to five in the morning, when she has a big smile and the sweetest laugh… she brightens up your spirit.”
Beyond companionship, are the clinical and practical reasons many patients remain with the center. Margaret Pfeiffer, vice president of patient care services, said the facility’s model focuses on what she called a “system of support” — family, social work, dietitian services and individualized care plans that help people manage a lifelong illness.
“They stay here for the care and the people,” Pfeiffer said.
That lifestyle has options. Gum Ho Kwon, a nurse who trains patients for home dialysis, explained the home programs and portable machines that allow people to travel or work without being tied to in-center schedules.
“The trend of the future is home,” she said, noting the center offers home hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis and that some patients who trained for home therapies later received transplants.
Staffers pointed to success stories: patients who became healthier candidates for transplant after shifting to home therapies, and others who were able to return to school or employment.
Some patients — like 60 year Oceanside resident Barbara Dressler, who started treatment two years ago — worry about managing sterility and the responsibilities of performing treatment at home and prefer the reassurance of in-center care.
“I don’t know that I could be in charge of making sure everything is right and sterile,” she said. “They’re very good here. They’re really caring.”
The center’s resilience was another recurring theme. Staff recounted how Superstorm Sandy displaced patients and left the building flooded; repairs and rebuilding took months. The clinic’s filtration and reverse-osmosis systems — the “crux of the operation” where community water is purified to the standards required for dialysis — were rebuilt and upgraded. Staff described having two reverse osmosis machines that helps ensure uninterrupted care. The reverse osmosis process takes roughly 30 minutes to an hour per cycle before water is used for treatment.
Hemodialysis chief technician Robert Baxter explainedthat the center’s patient mix is changing. Younger people, he said, are increasingly arriving with kidney failure tied to untreated diabetes and uncontrolled blood pressure.
“That’s why you’re seeing a lot of increase in dialysis… juvenile diabetes,” Baxter said.
Administrators said the center will continue community outreach — including educational events planned for September — and stressed that clinical excellence and continuity of care are just as vital as machines and water systems.
“Maybe I’ll be around for the 30th anniversary,” Giovinco said.
