Phase 1 of Brookhaven Memorial Hospital’s $60 million, 60,000-square-foot cardiac-unit expansion is complete, and a gathering of politicos, patrons and patients joined hospital officials this week to mark the milestone.
According to hospital board chair Lisa Rose, exterior and interior projects are on schedule and the remodeled, state-of-the-art Knapp Center is on target for its planned May 2016 completion and summer 2016 debut.
Keeping the name of the Knapp family, renowned benefactors of the hospital through the Knapp Swezey Foundation, the three-floor addition will ultimately include four technologically advanced operating suites, two cardiac catheterization laboratories, multiple non-invasive diagnostic units and a cardiac rehabilitation center. The goal, according to the hospital, is to enable cardiologists to better assess blockages and visualize balloon angioplasties and stent placements – critical advances for heart attack and stroke victims.
“The generosity of the Knapp family, the board of directors and our many friends and benefactors, [as well as] the public interest, have made this vision of a community-based interventional cardiac-care center a reality for the over 370,000 Long Islanders we serve,” hospital CEO Richard Margulis said.
The East Patchogue-based hospital – an independent, not-for-profit, 306-bed acute-care facility established in 1956 – also used Thursday’s event to announce new programs geared toward U.S. veterans.
Margulis announced that Brookhaven Hospital is now registered with the national Veterans Choice Program. One of the first creations of the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act of 2014, the program allows veterans to access care at private, independent facilities like BMHMC if they live more than 40 miles from an appropriate Veteran’s Administration facility.
“As a referred, local medical provider, Brookhaven Hospital will help to resolve the unacceptable distance veterans on the South Shore must now travel to access specialty treatments from VA facilities,” Margulis said.
