South Nassau, Long Beach Partner to Improve EMS Ambulance System

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - April 16, 2015 - PRLog -- South Nassau Communities Hospital will partner with the City of Long Beach to augment the City’s existing ambulance fleet by providing secondary backup for 9-1-1- ambulance calls.

Under an agreement between the hospital and Long Beach, South Nassau ambulances stationed at the current Urgent Care Center in Long Beach will respond when needed as backup for 9-1-1 calls. South Nassau ambulances will be staffed by a paramedic who will be able to communicate with a physician trained in emergency medicine to ensure proper treatment on the scene or while a patient is en route.

“South Nassau has made a major commitment to improve medical services on the barrier island in the wake of Superstorm Sandy so this agreement with the City of Long Beach to provide secondary backup for 9-1-1- ambulance calls is a logical next step as part of our overall plan,” said Richard J. Murphy, President & CEO of South Nassau Communities Hospital. “This move should help improve response time for residents while better coordinating emergency care. We commend the City of Long Beach for taking steps to improve its pre-hospital EMS system and are proud to partner with the City on this important initiative.”

City officials praised South Nassau for agreeing to step forward to help the City improve its EMS response.

“As recommended by public safety experts, the City and South Nassau are now working together to augment the City’s existing ambulance fleet with South Nassau’s ambulances, and institutional capabilities, creating synergies that will result in enhanced services for residents on our barrier island,” said Long Beach City Manager Jack Schnirman. “With more ambulances, at a lower cost, we are clearly ensuring a greater level of safety than ever before.”

“These ambulances provide the latest in pre-hospital care, using state-of-the-art technology-based solutions to coordinate patient care, during peak time hours, by paramedics staffed in advanced life support equipped ambulances,” said Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins. “It is also important to note that these ambulances will be secondary responses to our internal unit of paramedics.”

South Nassau’s involvement in the Long Beach EMS partnership will be overseen by Dr. Joshua Kugler, Chair of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Services Director who also serves as Chair of the Nassau County Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee. “This partnership is designed to improve the quality of emergency medical services for the residents of the barrier island,” said Dr. Kugler. “The way to improve patient outcomes is to provide proper treatment in the field where every moment matters before a patient even reaches an Emergency Room. We will be working closely with the City’s corps of paid and volunteer first responders to coordinate the best approach when we are called as backup to the City’s existing EMS response system.”

South Nassau announced last month that it intends to invest $5 million to upgrade its current Urgent Care Center – located on the grounds of the former Long Beach Medical Center – to an off-campus Emergency Department by July 1 (pending NYS Department of Health approval) that will operate 24/7 and will be able to receive ambulances via the 9-1-1 system. This move is expected to significantly reduce turnaround time for volunteer and paid ambulance crews across the barrier island. South Nassau’s Emergency Department in Long Beach will be staffed by nurses and physicians trained in emergency medicine. In addition, South Nassau has announced plans for a two-story, 30,000 sq. ft. Medical Arts Pavilion that would be the permanent home of its off-campus Emergency Department.

The EMS partnership with Long Beach combined with the off-campus emergency services department in Long Beach are two essential steps of South Nassau’s plan to improve medical services for barrier island residents.

SNUCC’s recently move into a temporary mobile urgent medical care unit located at the same street address, 325 East Bay Dr. in Long Beach, where it has been operating since first opening July 1, 2014.  South Nassau took this action to expedite the $5 million expansion and to ensure that there is no disruption of residents’ access of hospital-quality urgent medical care.

Contingent on the timely review and approval of the Certificate of Need for the emergency services department recently filed with the New York State Department of Health, South Nassau expects the off-campus, emergency services department to be fully operational by July 1, 2015.  In order to meet state requirements for certification as  an off-campus Emergency Department, SNUCC requires significant upgrades including (but not limited to) an 600-square foot expansion to include three observation beds, an emergency generator, wider corridors and a new ventilation system. The $5 million investment in the expansion is in addition to the $5 million South Nassau invested to open SNUCC last July.

The emergency department will be staffed by physicians board-certified in emergency medicine. As per existing Department of Health protocol, all acute strokes, heart attacks and trauma patients transported by EMS will be brought to the appropriate state-designated hospital. Any patient who requires hospital admission or advanced levels of treatment will be transferred from the off-campus Emergency Department in Long Beach to the South Nassau campus in Oceanside, or the appropriate hospital. South Nassau, which services some 900,000 residents of the South Shore from Queens to Suffolk County, is a Level II trauma center and advanced cardiac center.

Since opening its doors to serve the Long Beach community, more than 2,400 patients have been treated at SNUCC.  The center provides hospital grade treatment and triage by board-certified emergency service trained physicians for a wide array of urgent medical conditions as well as ambulatory care with subspecialty backup supported through an integrated information technology system connecting the center to South Nassau’s main campus in Oceanside.  Care is provided on a walk-in basis, with no appointments required, 9AM-9PM Monday-Friday, and 10AM-8PM  Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Patients who are assessed as in need of further emergency care or hospitalization are transported to South Nassau or the appropriate hospital via on-site ambulance services.

The Urgent Care Center combines with the Family Medicine Center at Long Beach to provide residents of Long Beach and surrounding communities a continuum of hospital-grade urgent care and family medicine.  Since its separate opening in May of 2014, the Family Medicine Center at Long Beach has totaled 2,400 patient visits from residents of Long Beach.