Weathering the pandemic at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital

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When faced with an “unprecedented” situation in April as coronavirus numbers reached their peak — 383 — the staff at Mount Sinai South Nassau hospital rose to the occasion and banded together to get through the difficult time.

“We are stretched beyond anything we have seen in the past,” spokesman Joe Calderone said at the time. “The situation here is unprecedented.”

While many lives were lost because of the virus, the hospital celebrated the release of hundreds of Covid-19 positive patients who were released healthy. At a time when front-line workers were stretched thin, the Oceanside community and many others came together to show their support, donating food to the hospital’s staff daily throughout the pandemic.

In May, when cases began plummeting, the hospital returned to offering elective surgeries as the hospital began a “Don’t Put Your Health on Hold” initiative, urging the community not to risk safety out of fear of coming to a hospital.

“If you’re out there and you have a procedure that you’ve been putting off, or if you have any kind of medical issue, you should call immediately,” Calderone said. “Don’t wait.”

In June, most units of the hospital returned to welcoming visitors under strict guidelines, including one visitor per day per patient, and a shift from a 24 hours per day visitor policy to a four-hour window. Additionally, all visitors must undergo a Covid-19 test no more than two days before visiting.

Before, during and after the surge of the pandemic, MSSN was committed to delivering standard-setting, patient-centered health care. It is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.

The hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, cancer, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. It is a designated Stroke Center, boasts Long Island’s first and only Gamma Knife® and Novalis Tx™ radiosurgery technologies for superior cancer care, expert orthopedic services, and emergency and elective angioplasty. MSSN has been designated as an Accredited Bariatric Surgery Center by MBSAQIP and is also a recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s “Get With The Guidelines®”-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: StrokeSM Honor Roll Elite.

MSSN’s beautiful North Addition houses two 36-bed medical surgical units, a 36-bed inpatient behavioral health unit and comprehensive maternity services center with 26 private postpartum rooms, spacious labor and delivery rooms and a neonatal intensive care unit.

The hospital’s Emergency Services department is one of the largest and most advanced on Nassau County’s South Shore. Designated a regional stroke center and Level II Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons, the department houses 35 treatment rooms and specialty care, including a high-speed CT-scan and x-ray facility, pediatric emergency room and psychiatric emergency room.

And that capacity will soon be expanding. MSSN is working on building a new four-story, 58,000-square-foot wing. The new wing will nearly double the size of the emergency room, add new and larger operating rooms, add more beds in the critical-care wing, and will also help prepare the hospital in case of another hurricane like Sandy or a surge in patients from a pandemic like it saw during the Covid-19 peak.

MSSN is the only hospital on Nassau’s South Shore permitted to perform angioplasty in an emergency or an elective basis. In the event you or a loved one need angioplasty, it can be performed on the spot at the hospital’s Center for Cardiovascular Health, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The facility’s Cancer Center is accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and has received the Outstanding Achievement Award for three consecutive survey cycles (2009, 2012, 2015). With leading-edge cancer fighting technologies, including Novalis Tx™ radiosurgery, daVinci robotic-assisted surgery, the Long Island Gamma Knife® and world-class physician talent specializing in cancer, MSSN offers South Shore residents expert cancer care without the need to travel to points north or into the city.

For more information about MSSN and its services, call (877) 768-8462 or (516) 632-3000, or go to www.southnassau.org. We encourage you to “like” them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.