Mount Sinai and South Nassau Communities Hospital Approve Affiliation Agreement
Questions and Answers
What does the affiliation agreement mean for Mount Sinai and South Nassau?
The trustees of the Mount Sinai Health System and South Nassau Communities Hospital have voted to approve an affiliation agreement. Mount Sinai will bring its academic, clinical, and research expertise to South Nassau. The agreement positions South Nassau as the Long Island flagship institution of the Mount Sinai Health System and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
When will the affiliation agreement be final?
Final regulatory applications are underway and approvals are expected in the coming months.
What is Mount Sinai Health System?
Mount Sinai is an integrated health system encompassing eight hospitals (with the addition of South Nassau) in New York, 300 ambulatory practices and other community locations, and more than 6,500 physicians. It includes the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of the most prestigious medical schools in the nation.
What is South Nassau Communities Hospital?
South Nassau, a nonprofit medical center and 455-bed teaching hospital in Oceanside, New York, is a premier provider of health services to more than 900,000 residents on Long Island’s South Shore. With 3,500 employees and 900 affiliated physicians, it is one of the few remaining independently controlled hospitals on Long Island.
What is Mount Sinai’s presence in Long Island?
Mount Sinai’s Long Island footprint includes 200 physicians and other experts at 11 multidisciplinary practices who indicate they will embrace the affiliation.
How will the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai play a role in the affiliation?
South Nassau will become a major clinical and academic affiliate of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The graduate medical education (GME) program will be sponsored by the School and include the development of an internal medicine physician training program. Specifically, the School will commit 30 graduate medical education resident slots to the development of an internal medicine physician training program. South Nassau currently has residency programs in surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, podiatry, and family medicine.
What will the governance be after the transaction closes?
South Nassau’s current Board of Directors will retain local governance over the day-to- day operations of the 455-bed hospital. South Nassau’s President and CEO, Richard J. Murphy, will report to the existing South Nassau board of directors and also to Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Mount Sinai’s President and Chief Executive Officer. The South Nassau Board will be joined by two new members from Mount Sinai’s Board, and two members of South Nassau’s Board will also join the Mount Sinai Board.
What kind of financial commitment will Mount Sinai make to South Nassau?
Mount Sinai will infuse a total of $120 million in capital contributions to South Nassau over a five-year period for capital projects to be mutually agreed upon.
How did this affiliation come about?
Joseph Fennessy, the Chairman of South Nassau’s Board of Directors, led a year-long process of searching for an affiliate. The goal was to find a partner seeking to expand services on Long Island that puts patients first, employing cutting-edge science and treatments. Mount Sinai’s physicians and researchers are leaders in their respective fields in many key areas of science and medicine. The vision is to help residents of Long Island benefit from the affiliation.
The two institutions signed a nonbinding letter of intent in May 2017 and have been exploring the details of the relationship ever since then. Physicians and administrators from both institutions already have been working on clinical programming to enhance and expand patient care and services.
What kind of expansion is already underway at South Nassau?
South Nassau is in the midst of tremendous growth and expansion. Plans to renovate and nearly double the size of the South Nassau Emergency Department in Oceanside are already underway, as are plans for a new, four-story, high-intensity building in Oceanside, as well as expanded medical services in Long Beach.
What impact will this affiliation have on South Nassau’s FEMA projects on Long Island?
South Nassau is the recipient of $154 million in FEMA funds and is proposing to expand health care services at the main campus in Oceanside and in Long Beach, the home of Long Island’s first and only free-standing emergency department. South Nassau has begun the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), the regulatory review process that is required before these projects can begin, which evaluates any potential environmental impacts.
Mount Sinai has endorsed South Nassau’s approach to improving service on the South Shore by using the FEMA funds in both Oceanside and Long Beach.
Will South Nassau get a new name?
A new name for South Nassau has not been determined yet, but we expect Mount Sinai to be part of the name.
What are some of the benefits of the partnership in terms of heart services?
South Nassau’s award-winning Center for Cardiovascular Health will be augmented with new surgical technologies, such as TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) for patients suffering from severe aortic stenosis, as they are developed and enhanced at Mount Sinai. South Nassau is currently the only hospital on Nassau County’s South Shore to perform emergency and elective angioplasty.
What are some of the benefits in terms of cancer services?
Mount Sinai will develop with South Nassau a Joint Comprehensive Cancer Center aligned with Mount Sinai’s National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer center. South Nassau cancer patients – currently seen at the Gertrude and Louis Feil Cancer Center in Valley Stream – will have expanded access to cutting-edge treatments via genomic medicine and clinical trials.
What are the benefits of the affiliation in terms of pediatric and obstetrical care?
Mount Sinai will work with South Nassau to establish a Level III Neonatal Service in Oceanside, enhancing pediatric and high-risk obstetrical care for the South Shore. Mount Sinai’s alignment with one of the foremost pediatric hospitals in the United States, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (also known as CHOP), will provide opportunities in advanced pediatric subspecialties, including fetal and maternal-fetal services in coordination with national experts.
What are the neurosurgical technologies that will be advanced?
Mount Sinai is committed to enhancing sophisticated, advanced neurosurgical technologies at South Nassau, using the latest medical imaging being pioneered at Mount Sinai.
What will be the advances in robotics as a result of the affiliation?
Mount Sinai and South Nassau will work toward the development of a Robotic Surgery Center of Excellence at South Nassau, building on Mount Sinai’s extensive robotic surgical program specializing in urology, thoracic surgery, gynecology, head and neck surgery, cardiac surgery and surgical oncology.
How will the affiliation affect patients who receive organ transplants?
South Nassau will become a pre- and post- organ transplant center for the Mount Sinai Health System, beginning with liver transplantation.
What other programs will be developed as a result of the affiliation?
Mount Sinai envisions the creation of an advanced geriatric program at South Nassau, which will be based on innovative services provided by Mount Sinai’s nationally recognized geriatric assessment and treatment program.
Other areas for integration and clinical advancement include intensive care, complex surgery, telemedicine, behavioral health services, vascular intervention, and complex gastroenterology including inflammatory bowel disease, areas in which Mount Sinai is nationally recognized.
Will there be an expansion of ambulatory medical services in Long Island?
Mount Sinai will partner with South Nassau to develop a multidisciplinary medical services center of excellence in Wantagh as part of a countywide ambulatory care strategy.
Will physicians at each hospital have admitting privileges at the other?
Physicians at South Nassau can apply for admitting privileges at Mount Sinai, and vice versa. Each application will be considered individually through the hospital’s normal credentialing process.
How does this affiliation align with Mount Sinai’s population health programs?
The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health care system providing exceptional medical care to local and global communities. Mount Sinai takes care of the patient for the whole life cycle and for all degrees of care. We define large-scale population management services for chronic diseases, so that patients receive appropriate preventive and treatment measures early on, before disease progresses. The expansion to Long Island will provide for an extraordinary array of resources for the provision of compassionate, state-of-the-art care that keeps patients in that region healthy and out of the hospital. It also significantly enhances our ability to identify and respond to the health–related needs of the populations we serve.
Looking forward, with eight hospitals included in our system, we will be better able to provide an enhanced continuum of care. This will ensure that patients receive appropriate preventive and treatment measures early on in the progression of their disease, therefore reducing the need for high-cost, acute care later on in the process.
The wider network of patients will further allow us to better control costs through innovative programs and alignment of incentives across the system. Through enhanced services and care coordination, we will not only provide better care, but we expect to be able to find cost savings.
We strive to provide the highest quality of care and service, and to be the provider of choice for patients, referring physicians, and payers. As a system, we advocate for health reform for the communities we serve.
What are some of the achievements of the Mount Sinai Health System?
The Mount Sinai Hospital is No. 18 on the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals “Honor Roll” for 2017-18, ranked in 10 adult specialties: Cancer, Cardiology and Heart Surgery, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Gastroenterology and GI Surgery, Geriatrics, Gynecology, Nephrology, Neurology/Neurosurgery, Orthopedics, and Urology.
New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai is nationally ranked by U.S. News in two specialties—Ear, Nose & Throat and Ophthalmology—while Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai St. Luke's, and Mount Sinai West are ranked regionally. Mount Sinai’s Kravis Children’s Hospital is ranked in six out of ten pediatric specialties by U.S. News & World Report in "Best Children's Hospitals."
What are some of the achievements of South Nassau?
South Nassau currently provides a number of key specialty services found at a tertiary-level hospital, including comprehensive cancer care, interventional cardiology, orthopedics, and intensive care. It is the only hospital on Long Island to achieve Healthgrades® America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopedic Surgery™ and Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award™, and also carries five-star ratings for Total Knee Replacement, Total Hip Replacement, and Hip Fracture Treatment in 2018. Additionally, it is the only trauma center on the South Shore of Nassau County.
Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals. The hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health, and emergency services.
South Nassau operates Long Island’s only free-standing, 911-receiving Emergency Department, located in Long Beach. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, as well as noninvasive Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies for tumors of the body and brain. South Nassau is designated as a Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and a Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons, and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.
The hospital has been awarded The Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for disease-specific care for heart failure, primary stroke, hip replacement, knee replacement, wound care, bariatric surgery, and end-stage renal disease.