SNCH expansion is on

The South Nassau Communities Hospital Emergency Department expansion project is under way. 

The emergency room will continue to function even as sections of it are rebuilt, renovated or removed. The department snakes around the machine room in the center of the hospital. 

“The machine room is a complex area — it supports the entire west wing of the hospital,” said the facility’s president and CEO, Richard Murphy.

The emergency rnow handles about 35,000 visits per year, and the plan is to increase that to 65,000 and potentially up to 80,000 visits per year. The new emergency space will have individual rooms, not the cubbies with curtains that exist now, with room for visitors. There will be specific areas for pediatrics and behavioral patients. 

Once the Emergency Department is finished, work will begin on new operating theaters, the operation supply floor and a new intensive care facility.

To date, $4.3 million of the $10 million fundraising goal has been raised. The Emergency Department project is slated to cost $60 million, and the entire hospital project is estimated to cost $130 million.

Joel Schneider, chair of the Emergency Department Expansion Capital Fundraising Campaign, observed that “people do everything to promote and save their lives — they take vitamins, try to control their weight, but they forget the most important component, that unexpected, life-threatening acute event which hits everybody, every family, everyone. People contribute to other charitable hospitals, even hospitals in New York City, but when you’re clutching your chest and have minutes to live, isn’t it important to have the best possible resources in your backyard?”

Contributions can be made at www.lifesaver.org.