Red and White confetti rained down from above on Thursday after over 100 guests — some dressed in suits and ties while others wore scrubs with stethoscopes draped around their necks — applauded the oversized scissors cutting away the last few strands of red ribbon.
Phase one of the Major Modernization Project at Stony Brook University Medical Center is now complete.
The 154,000 square feet of new construction and 48,000 square feet of renovation will house the Woman and Infants Center, an expanded Emergency Department, a state-of-the-art surgical suite with a new operating room pharmacy and a new lobby.
The glass lobby will include a meditation room, conference center, valet parking, Starbucks and hospital gift shop. ‘It’s going to be making it beautiful, interesting, and more grand than it was before,’ said Madeline DiSomma, a registered nurse for the mother baby department.
The project broke ground two and a half years ago, according to Alt Marotta, director of capital projects for the Stony Brook Medical Center who oversaw daily activities for the construction. According to Marotta, there was a ‘smooth transition’ from construction to the facilities’ current near-finished condition.
The modernization project cost $300 million and the funding is generated from capital bonds that were sold and the hospital is paying back, according to Lauren Sheprow, public relations for the medical center. The bond payback is funded out of hospital revenue and is not funded by the state, Sheprow said.
‘I have long considered this hospital a jewel,’ said Congressman Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) at the ceremony. ‘This facility polished what is already a jewel.’ Bishop reflected on his own parents stays at the hospital and acknowledges the hospital’s role as part of the reason they are now in their ’80s.
‘We’ll be able to be beacons of light for our own community,’ said Reverend Steven Unger in a speech during the ceremony. ‘We dedicate this as a place of light.’
The three-story wing will be outfitted with the latest technology. The emergency department will be home to a 64-slice Cat Scan (CT) machine that will be able to take a heart CT in 45 seconds, according to Anthony Indelicato, radiology operations manager.
X-rays that would normally take 62 to 65 seconds to develop will now be ready in three to five seconds according to Indelicato.
When the current Emergency Department was originally built, it was designed to service 20,000 patients per year, according to President Shirley Strum Kenny. The Emergency Department currently services 70,000 patients per year. When the emergency wing opens on Oct. 3, the additional space will ease the burden on the current space.
‘This is equal to or better to the care patients can get in NYC,’ said William Giangarra, a biomedical engineer for the hospital, discussing the addition as a whole. ‘And patients don’t have to make the trip into the city.’
The new Women and Infants Center, scheduled to open Sept. 22, will house a 12-bed antepartum unit for high risk obstetrical patients, 36 beds in a post-partum unit and two newborn nurseries.
The new OR suites will have staggered openings following safety runs. The new space will house 10 new operating rooms, separate consult rooms for families and surgeons and video boards that will keep families updated on general timings of procedures, time of completion and when the patient is brought into the recovery room.
There will also be a STAT laboratory with a point-to-point pneumatic tube system allowing lab samples to have a turn around time of 30 minutes.
All openings are pending Department of Health approval.
The hospital is also stepping up its bedside manner. ‘Our goal is to put patients first by taking a holistic approach to customer service,’ said Diane Carillo, associate director of patient and guest services. ‘This includes concierge services, flower deliveries, room service and in-room amenities such as newspaper delivery and an amenity kit, as well as administrator visits to all units.’
This is not the end of the project. Phase II of the project will include 63,000 square feet of renovation and will have a timeline of 30 months. Details of the project could not be gathered before deadline.
Stony Brook University Medical Center is the only academic medical center on Long Island. The hospital is also the only tertiary care hospital and Level I trauma center in Suffolk County and the Heart Center performs the only open-heart surgery in the county.
