Assemb. Weisenberg and Wife, Dr. Robert Kramer Honored at 2014 Carnation Ball

Retiring Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and his wife, Ellen, along with Robert J. Kramer, M.D., were honored at South Nassau Communities Hospital’s 2014 Annual Carnation Ball held Saturday, November 1 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Westbury. The Carnation Ball raised more than $713,000 in support of South Nassau’s $57 million Emergency Department expansion project.

Mr. and Mrs. Weisenberg were the Carnation Ball’s co-honorees and Dr. Kramer was the recipient of South Nassau’s prestigious Mary Pearson Award. South Nassau administrators, board members and medical staff members, as well as many of the region’s healthcare executives, state and local public officials and business and community leaders were among the more than 630 guests who attended the event.

“The annual success of the Carnation Ball is the direct result of teamwork and a commitment to service excellence, which is also the driving force behind South Nassau’s tradition of excellence in the delivery of healthcare services,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of South Nassau. “On behalf of the communities and patients that turn to South Nassau for the quality healthcare that they deserve, I thank Mr. and Mrs. Weisenberg and Dr. Kramer for their selfless dedication to South Nassau’s mission.”

Carnation Ball honorees are recognized for exemplary leadership and contributions in support of South Nassau’s mission. Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg and his wife Ellen have been steadfast champions of the hospital’s mission and vision to be the leading provider of patient-centered, high-quality healthcare services for the South Shore of Nassau County.

This has never been more evident than in Assemblyman Weisenberg’s tireless work to assist South Nassau with its plan to redevelop the healthcare delivery system in Long Beach and surrounding communities. In addition, his advocacy of South Nassau has been instrumental in securing funding to support patient education programs that improve birth outcomes for low-income women, as well as funding for major capital improvements, including the expansion of the hospital’s Emergency Department and for the establishing of the hospital’s Center for Cardiovascular Health.

Assemblyman Weisenberg and Ellen are stalwart advocates for people with disabilities. Assemblyman Weisenberg has served as Honorary Chair of the Friedberg Jewish Community Center’s Sunrise Day Camp, the first and only day camp in New York State for children who are being treated for cancer and cancer-related disorders. He and Ellen were overjoyed to welcome campers on Sunrise’s opening day in 2006. In addition, he spearheaded the development of Angela’s House and Angela’s House II – the only facilities on Long Island to care for medically fragile children – and led the effort to build a respite suite at Stony Brook Hospital’s Childhood Cancer Center for family members of children with cancer.

The hospital’s Mary Pearson Award is presented annually to an individual for extraordinary effort and individual contributions that significantly advance South Nassau’s commitment to compassionate care and standard setting healthcare services. Dr. Kramer’s tenure as Chair of the Department of Medicine, Chief of Cardiology and Assistant Medical Director is marked by leadership, innovation and advancements in interventional cardiology, echocardiography and cardiac rehabilitation.

Under Dr. Kramer’s leadership, the Department of Medicine expanded its impact on the community, helping to cement South Nassau’s status as one of Long Island’s leading health care providers. For more than three decades he worked tirelessly to advance the standard of practice by elevating the role of quality improvement. During his tenure, he helped develop and oversee the hospital’s echocardiography services and cardiac rehabilitation program. Dr. Kramer was instrumental in helping South Nassau obtain New York State Department of Health approval to open a cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology lab at a time when no other community hospital in Nassau offered the service. His work helped lay the foundation for launching South Nassau’s elective coronary angioplasty program and the opening of South Nassau’s Center for Cardiovascular Health in 2006. Today, South Nassau is in the vanguard of interventional cardiology and electrophysiology, providing South Shore residents urgent access to high-quality diagnosis and treatment of heart problems.

A Stanford- and Harvard-trained physician, who completed post-doctoral training in cardiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kramer is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians.

Presently housing 35 treatment bays, South Nassau’s Emergency Department is a New York State Department of Health Regional Stroke Center and the only Level II Trauma Center located in southern Nassau County. The department is staffed by a team of dedicated professionals including board-certified, residency-trained emergency medicine physicians as well as nurses and physicians' assistants who specialize in emergency medical care.

A capital campaign is underway to nearly double the department’s size to provide greater efficiency for the more than 70,000 patients it serves annually.