At Mount Sinai South Nassau, we recognize that pastoral counseling and other spiritual guidance can be an important part of care for you and your loved ones. We also know you might want to continue religious practices while you are in the hospital. For that reason, we offer a variety of services for different faiths.

Let us know if you would like us to notify your pastor, priest, rabbi, or spiritual leader that you are in the hospital. We can also contact our hospital chaplain for you.

Meditation Resources

For quiet reflection and relaxation, our multifaith Meditation Room is on the main floor in the “C” corridor. In your room, television channel 12 plays soothing music while showing relaxing images of nature.

Catholic Services

The chaplain is available on-site to meet with patients, visitors, and staff, Sunday through Thursday. At other times, we have chaplains on call. We also distribute rosaries, Bibles (English and Spanish), prayer cards, and spiritual pamphlets. Additional Catholic ministries at South Nassau include:

• Holy Communion: Eucharistic ministers perform this sacrament Sunday through Friday.
• Holy Mass: We celebrate each Sunday and Tuesday at noon.
• Catholic Communion Service: This takes place Fridays at noon in the Meditation Room, on the main floor in the "C" wing.
• Other sacraments: We perform sacraments such as the Eucharist, Anointing of the Sick, and Reconciliation on request.
• Special observances: We celebrate Ash Wednesday, the Blessing of the Throats (St. Blaise), Good Friday, and Holy Day liturgies.
• Diocese TV: Channel 31 is the television channel of the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre.

Jewish Services

Members of the Spiritual Care Team offer pastoral and rabbinical visits. We celebrate Jewish holidays and provide kosher food and other ritual needs. We also offer:

• Sabbath Hospitality House: Arrange with Spiritual Care Services to pick up a key weekdays, 8:30 am-4:30 pm. After hours, contact hospital security. We will ask you to leave a picture ID while you have the key. Please return the key immediately after the holiday ends. 
• Kosher Foods: 
  • In Your Room: We offer glatt kosher meals to our patients and visitors. Order your meal by calling the Food and Nutrition Department, ext. 3903, on hospital phones. The cost to visitors is $5 per meal. If you are admitted late in the day, after meals are served, you can ask your nurse to request a frozen kosher entree.
  • Kosher Pantry and Respite Room: Located on the “G” corridor, ground floor, the respite room lets you relax in recliners, and enjoy religious literature and fresh, kosher food that you can heat up.
  • Gift Shop and Café: We keep freshly prepared kosher foods in our café, located in the hospital lobby. It is open weekdays, 7 am-8 pm and weekends, 8 am-8 pm.

Muslim Services

Mount Sinai South Nassau provides a variety of services for those of the Muslim faith. For prayer times and the Quran, English translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, contact the Spiritual Care office. Other services include:

• Muslim clerics and mufti: They are available on-call 24/7 for you and your loved ones.
• Prayer space: Our multifaith meditation room, on the ground floor in the “C” wing, includes a Qibla indicator and a curtain for privacy during prayer.
• Halal food: You can request a Halal Kosher meals at any time during your stay. In addition, we sell freshly prepared halal foods in our café, located in the hospital lobby. It is open weekdays, 7 am-8 pm, and weekends, 8 am-8 pm.

No One Journeys Alone Companion Volunteer Program

No one is born alone, and under the best circumstances, no one dies alone. Yet, from time to time terminally ill patients come to Mount Sinai South Nassau who have neither family nor close friends to be with them as they near the end of life.

No One Journeys Alone is a volunteer program in the Spiritual Care Services Department. We provide the reassuring presence of a companion to dying patients who would otherwise be by themselves. With the support of the nursing staff, our volunteers provide patients with a priceless human gift: companionship. The program also offers relief for the medical staff who cannot be at the dying patient’s bedside continually.

We invite all Mount Sinai South Nassau employees (when not on work duty) and volunteers to participate in this program. You can sign up for shifts of your choosing. Some may want to serve on a special day to honor or remember loved ones. Others might offer their services more regularly. When we identify a patient who needs a volunteer companion, we reach out to all volunteers who are available during that time to find out if they can serve a four-hour shift.