A crowd of more than 100 supporters gathered on July 23 to celebrate Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital (SBELIH) joining the Stony Brook Medicine healthcare system to improve access to advanced medical care for Shelter Island and the North Fork of Long Island.
“Today is a momentous occasion for Stony Brook University as we combine the best in community and academic medicine,” said Michael A. Bernstein, PhD, Interim President-Designate, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Stony Brook University.
“Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital offers a unique academic experience for residents and fellows through its community-based hospital setting,” Dr. Bernstein said. “We hope that this environment will inspire graduates of this program to explore professional opportunities in medically underserved areas.”
SBELIH is a clinical campus and training site for Stony Brook Medicine, which will help increase the number of physicians, specialists, allied health professionals and nurses on the East End of Long Island. Stony Brook Medicine already provides a psychiatric residency program at SBELIH. A new Mastery in General Surgery Fellowship program provides surgical fellows with four months of community hospital experience and improves surgical physician staffing in the SBELIH Operating Rooms and Emergency Department. Surgeons from Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Meeting House Lane Medical Practice provide additional physician coverage.
“By combining our resources among our three hospitals, we are able to better match patients with the right type of care in the right facility,” said Kenneth Kaushansky, MD, MACP, Senior Vice President, Health Sciences and Dean, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “Patients across Suffolk County will be the true beneficiaries of our coordinated efforts, as we improve healthcare access and quality for East End residents.
Stony Brook has already improved access to pre-hospital emergency care on the North Fork, with two EMS “fly cars,” staffed by paramedics who serve as first responders on the scene of emergencies. In the future, Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) and SBELIH will begin offering telehealth connections between the Emergency Departments of the two hospitals, and on Shelter Island, to improve direct access to Stony Brook Medicine specialists.
Margaret M. McGovern, MD, PhD, Vice President for Health System Clinical Programs and Strategy, Stony Brook Medicine, said that formalizing the relationship with SBELIH will improve access to medical and surgical services, as well as specialty care, and offer new community-based health programs for the North Fork and Shelter Island.
“Our objective is to create a truly integrated healthcare delivery system that improves efficiency, reduces costs and, most importantly, improves the coordination of complex episodes of care for our patients as they move through our system,” Dr. McGovern said. “To do this effectively requires improved caregiver communication, integration of electronic medical records and elimination of organizational silos, so that we can provide care for our patients seamlessly across our integrated system.”
The three hospitals in the Stony Brook Medicine healthcare system will work together to address healthcare gaps for East End residents, including neurology, gynecology, pulmonology, hematology/oncology and orthopedic services.
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