Rockville Centre Resident Jeffrey Feil - Real Estate Developer, Healthcare Philanthropist - Named Honoree of South Nassau’s 2017 Soirée Under the Stars

Renowned Cancer Surgeon, Rajiv Datta, MD & 40-year Nurse Leader Lori Edelman, RN, Also to Be Honored Sept. 16th

Prominent New York real estate developer and healthcare philanthropist Mr. Jeffrey Feil of Rockville Centre has been named the honoree of South Nassau Communities Hospital’s new gala – Soirée Under the Stars - which will be held Saturday, September 16 at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, NY.

The Soirée will also honor two of South Nassau’s most recognized and devoted health care leaders, Rajiv Datta, MD, of Muttontown, NY, and Lori Edelman, RN, of Long Beach, NY, who will be presented with the hospital’s Mary Pearson and the Cupola awards, respectively.

The Mount Sinai Health System will serve as the lead and exclusive Soirée sponsor, providing a gift toward the hospital’s Emergency Department Expansion Campaign. Cupola Sponsors include the Feil Family Foundation, Neurological Surgery, P.C. and North American Partners in Anesthesiology.

Funds raised by the Soirée (formerly known as the Carnation Ball) will support the hospital’s five-year, $10-million capital campaign to nearly double the size of the Oceanside Emergency Department. When completed, the $60 million renovation and expansion project will  provide  space to accommodate in excess of 80,000 patient visits each year, as well as establishing a dedicated area for behavioral health patients. The Emergency Department currently sees some 65,000 patients a year, but was only designed to handle 35,000 annually. South Nassau is the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County.



Left to Right: Jeffrey Feil, Chief Executive Officer, The Feil Organization; Rajiv Datta, MD, MBA, FACS, FRCS, FICS, Dept. Chair, Surgery; Dir. Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center; Dir. Surgical Oncology/Head & Neck, South Nassau Communities Hospital; Lori Edelman, RN, Director of Patient Care Services, Emergency Departments & Med-Surg Units, South Nassau Communities Hospital. 

Mr. Feil, a long-time resident of Rockville Centre, is a respected metro area real estate developer and philanthropist whose family has had a transformative impact on South Nassau in expanding and elevating the standard of cancer care for South Nassau’s patients. The Feil family has donated more than $6 million to South Nassau in the past several years. This includes a $3 million donation to South Nassau in the spring of 2011that supported the continued growth and expansion of the hospital’s existing Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center, located in Valley Stream. In December 2016, the Charitable Lead Annuity Trust under the will of Louis Feil, donated $1 million toward a new consolidated cancer center being planned at the hospital’s Oceanside campus. One of Long Island’s premiere providers of compassionate advanced cancer care, the Center treats more than 1,500 patients annually with leading-edge cancer treatment technologies.

“As a result of the Feil Family Foundation’s altruism and support that Jeff has designated in support of South Nassau’s cancer care services, hundreds of residents across the South Shore of Nassau County have convenient access to world-class clinicians and advance treatments and technologies that give them the hope and inspiration they need to fight and overcome a cancer diagnosis,” said South Nassau’s President & CEO, Richard J. Murphy. “Mr. Feil’s contributions and selflessness will leave an indelible mark on South Nassau’s tradition of excellence in the delivery of high-quality healthcare.”

Kenneth L. Davis, President & CEO of Mount Sinai Health System, said Mount Sinai is pleased to support the event. “We are committed to providing access to high-quality health care services to communities throughout New York, and proud to work closely with an institution that shares our mission.”
 
South Nassau Communities Hospital is in exclusive discussions with Mount Sinai Health System to expand access to high-quality, innovative care to patients on Long Island.

South Nassau’s Mary Pearson Award, named in honor of the hospital’s founding administrator, is presented annually to an individual for extraordinary effort and individual contributions that significantly advance South Nassau’s commitment to the communities we serve and standard setting healthcare services.  Since joining South Nassau in 2001 as director of Surgical Oncology/Head & Neck Surgery, Dr. Datta, MBA, FACS, FRCS, FICS, has earned a global reputation for leadership and surgical innovation.  Today, he also serves as chair of the Department of Surgery and medical director of the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center.

His exceptional skills are evidenced by his education, recognition in the field of surgery and by a strong patient following. He has the unusual distinction of holding three fellowships – from the International College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Surgeons. Under Dr. Datta’s leadership, the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center has been equipped with three of the most effective technologies used to treat and eradicate cancer: the Varian Novalis Tx™, daVinci® Surgical System and Gamma Knife® Perfextion.

“Dr. Datta is one of South Nassau’s key leaders who helps keep South Nassau on the cutting edge of medical treatment,” said Murphy. “His devotion to his patients and to the hospital is exemplary and he deserves this recognition.”

South Nassau established the Cupola Award in 2015 as an annual award presented to a deserving hospital employee who goes above and beyond their duties, and lives by the hospital mission to promote excellence in healthcare.  Ms. Edelman, RN, CEN, NE-BC, the 2017 Cupola Award recipient, has worked with South Nassau for 40 years. She has demonstrated unflappable, focused leadership in overseeing patient care services – not only in her decades of service at the hospital’s Oceanside Emergency Department, but since it opened in 2015, at the hospital’s Emergency Department in Long Beach, Long Island’s only free-standing emergency department, which has seen over 18,000 patients.  In addition to her duties in the Emergency Departments, Ms. Edelman also has a leadership role on three of the hospital’s medical-surgical units.

“Lori’s leadership in the area of emergency medicine has been critical and is at the very core of what we do at South Nassau,” said Dr. Adhi Sharma, South Nassau’s Chief Medical Officer. “As the Emergency Department has grown, Lori has helped ensure that we provide the highest standard of care to everyone who comes to us both in Oceanside and in Long Beach seeking emergency treatment. She has the unique skill of keeping calm while carrying on, even in the most challenging of circumstances.”

The Soirée is South Nassau’s most successful annual fundraising effort. This year’s format will feature a two-hour, outdoor poolside reception starting at 6 PM under the stars that will be highlighted by an unlimited top-shelf open bar, passed hot and cold hors d’oeuvres and a variety of savory food stations including  Little Italy, Asian Fusion Bar and hot and cold seafood stations, carving stations, sushi and summer salads.

At 8 p.m., the party will move indoors for an hour of first-class, Broadway-quality entertainment followed by a Deluxe Viennese Table featuring scrumptious handmade desserts, cakes, pastries, hand-filled cannolis, Belgian waffles, zeppoles, artisanal ice creams and sliced exotic fruits.

The entertainment will feature performances by four Broadway performers, including two from Long Island, and a 16 piece orchestra. The artists include Erich Bergen (co-star of CBS's Madam Secretary and previously starring as Bob Gaudio in the Clint Eastwood-directed feature film “Jersey Boys,” as well as more than 1,000 performances in the same role for the Grammy- and Tony-winning musical); Alexa Green (the Hicksville-based Holy Trinity High School graduate best known for her turn as Glinda in the Los Angeles and San Francisco productions of the hit Broadway musical “Wicked”); Cady Huffman (two-time Tony Award nominee and a Tony Award winner for her role as Ulla in “The Producers”), and Howard McGillin (over 1,500 performances as the title character in the Broadway production of "The Phantom of the Opera,” earning him the title of the longest-running Broadway phantom).
 
To learn more about the Soirée, or to purchase tickets or support as a sponsor, call South Nassau’s Development office or Lynne Nordone at (516) 377-5360.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) for outstanding nursing care, South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,500 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, 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.

In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and offers Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau operates the only Trauma Center on the South Shore of Nassau County verified by the American College of Surgeons as well as Long Island’s only free-standing, 9-1-1 receiving Emergency Department in Long Beach. South Nassau also is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and 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.
 
In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval for disease-specific care for hip and knee replacement, heart failure, bariatric surgery, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.