South Nassau Earns Level II Trauma Center Designation - Remains the Only Trauma Center on South Shore of Nassau County

After a rigorous review process and a significant investment in additional highly-trained personnel, South Nassau Communities Hospital has earned the American College of Surgeons (ACS) verification as a Level II Trauma Center.

South Nassau’s Level II Trauma Center remains the only one of its kind located on the South Shore of Nassau County, providing critical emergency care to some 900,000 residents in the hospital’s service area.

The verification, which is awarded by the ACS’s Verification Review Committee, an ad hoc committee of the Committee on Trauma (COT), confirms that South Nassau has demonstrated its commitment to ensure that patients with severe injuries receive priority access to its full array of trauma care resources, including in-house coverage for trauma surgery and anesthesia.  Other services, such as critical care, radiology, cardiology, orthopedics, neurosurgery, vascular and thoracic care, are also available.

“The verification means that South Nassau remains ready at a moment’s notice to deploy an experienced and expert trauma team that will utilize the most advanced emergency medical technologies to treat patients with life-threatening injuries,” said Richard J. Murphy, president and CEO of South Nassau.



South Nassau Communities Hospital’s Trauma Team (L to R) Tony Chirel CCEMT-P FTO; Rachel Sarosy, RN, Emergency Department (ED) Educator; Lisa Busso, RN, Assistant Director of Nursing, ED; Darrel Sandel, MD; Emily Paul, RN, Educator; Kenneth, Becker, MD, Trauma Medical Director; Angela Nischo, RN, ED Nurse; N. Paul Grewal, DO, Associate Trauma Medical Director, Medical Director Trauma/Surgical Critical Care; Tania Dufour, RN, Injury Prevention/Outreach Coordinator; Justin Gauthier, MD, Surgery Resident; Tracy Thorn, RN, ED Nurse, Clinical Coordinator, South Nassau Communities Hospital Emergency Department at Long Beach; Craig Robinson, FNP, Department of Trauma; Margaret Puya, RN, Trauma Program Manager; Christine Burd, RN, ED Nurse; Emily Woods, RN, ED Nurse; Joshua Kugler, MD, Chair, Emergency Department; Joseph Lattanzi EMT-B.

The South Nassau Trauma Team consists of a multidisciplinary group of specially-trained healthcare experts that includes specialists in emergency medicine, trauma surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery, plastic surgery and anesthesiology, as well as emergency certified nurses, social workers, and rehabilitation therapists.

Time is critical in traumatic injuries. Once the ED is alerted of an impending arrival, the Trauma Team is mobilized through an efficient paging system to immediately make ready and receive the patient. From admission to rehabilitation, the goal is to make the patient’s journey to recovery as seamless as possible. The trauma team provides expertly coordinated care that focuses not just on the treatment of the injury, but also on the emotional and financial needs of the patient and family.

As an ACS-verified Level II Trauma Center, South Nassau has committed to:

• A trauma surgeon being present and immediately available in the hospital twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week
• Surgeons with specialty fellowship training in the management and care of the traumatically injured and critically ill population are in-house and on call
• Neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons available that are trained in the treatment and management of trauma related injuries including complex factures and traumatic brain injuries
• Operating room immediately available, an on-call interventional radiologist, and comprehensive blood bank services in house to care for severely injured patients
• Dedicated state-of-the-art trauma resuscitation bays in its Emergency Department
• Ongoing training and drilling in preparation to respond to any potential mass casualty event that could occur within the community
• Comprehensive community outreach and injury prevention program that works to identify patterns and implements programs to prevent injuries

“The verification is the direct result of our organization-wide commitment to teamwork,” said Adhi Sharma, MD, South Nassau’s Chief Medical Officer, “and it symbolizes our commitment and critical role as a leading provider of advanced medical services.”

South Nassau has been a Level II Trauma Center, but invested more than $2 million to upgrade its capabilities to meet higher standards established by the ACS and earn the Trauma Center designation for a three-year period. In terms of care received by patients, there is no difference between a Level II and a Level I Trauma Center. The primary difference between a Level I and Level II Trauma Center involves research and teaching activities that a Level I Trauma Center is required to perform.

To achieve verification from the ACS Committee on Trauma, a team of experienced trauma medical care professionals conducted a rigorous on-site review to verify that South Nassau meets specific criteria within five separate categories of verification in the committee’s program.  Established in 1987, the ACS Committee on Trauma verification program promotes the development of trauma centers in which participants provide not only the hospital resources necessary for trauma care, but also the entire spectrum of care to address the needs of all injured patients. This spectrum encompasses the pre-hospital phase (which is initial medical care given an ill or injured patient by a paramedic or other person before the patient reaches the hospital emergency department) through the rehabilitation process.

The ACS is a scientific and educational association of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical education and practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The ACS has more than 72,000 members and it is the largest association of surgeons in the world. Longstanding achievements have placed the ACS in the forefront of American surgery and have made it an important advocate for all surgical patients.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 455 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 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 is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau 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 as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and knee replacement, wound care, heart failure and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.