Supporters Donate More than $4.2 Million toward South Nassau’s Emergency Department Expansion Campaign

Thanks to the generous support of local donors, South Nassau Communities Hospital is nearing the halfway point toward its goal of raising $10 million to help fund the expansion and redesign of the hospital’s Oceanside Emergency Department. Since the Emergency Department Expansion Campaign began in 2015, the hospital’s supporters have donated $3,376,910, pledged an additional $364,731 and secured grants of $500,000. The total of $4,241,641 in donations will go toward the $57 million cost of expanding the Emergency Department, nearly doubling its size to meet growing demand along the South Shore of Nassau County.

Last year along, business leaders and local supporters donated a total of $1,124,568.46 toward the Emergency Department campaign and other planned renovations. The 2015 gifts include a $512,000 donation from The Louis Feil Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, who requested that the funds go toward renovating two operating room suites at the hospital’s Oceanside campus. The Feil family has donated $4.012 million over the past four years in support of South Nassau’s healthcare mission. The Feil family made generous gifts to the hospital’s Center of Cardiovascular Health in 2008 as well as a substantial gift to the cancer center in 2009. Other major donors include: Mrs. Adele Folz, matriarch of the former Folz family business, Folz Vending Co.; the South Nassau Auxiliary; Mr. Joseph Fennessy, chair of South Nassau’s board of directors, who is a retired former partner and chief operating officer of the Northeast region, Deloitte & Touche LLP; Steven and Terri Gold; Mr. Mark Fisher, president and founder of MBF Clearing Corp.; Mr. Marc Kemp & Mr. Steven Kaufman, Basser & Kaufman Real Estate, and Mr. Joel Schneider, SNCH board member and chair of the ED Campaign, president and founder of Joel Schneider Construction.

"We are very grateful for the continued support we receive from our generous benefactors who believe in our mission to provide quality health care to all the communities along the South Shore,” said Richard J. Murphy, South Nassau’s President and CEO. “I am joined by South Nassau’s board of directors and medical staff in extending our deep appreciation to each benefactor for their generosity and support. Our Emergency Department is really the front door to our hospital and this much needed renovation is already underway. It is happening, thanks to the support we have received.”

South Nassau’s 35-bed Emergency Department is the only Level II Trauma and Regional Stroke Center on the South Shore of Nassau County. The department currently sees some 65,000 patients a year, but was designed to handle just 35,000 annually. The hospital is the only one on Long Island to earn an “A” for patient safety, be named a Top Performer by the Joint Commission, win top honors for cancer care and be designated a Magnet hospital for superior nursing care. “South Nassau is becoming the hospital of choice for South Shore residents,” said Mr. Schneider, the South Nassau board member who chairs the expansion campaign. “More supporters are realizing that a strong South Nassau is in their own best interests as it is likely the hospital they will depend upon in an emergency.” The Emergency Department expansion project will increase the Department’s square footage from 16,000 to 30,000 square feet, nearly doubling its size and allowing staff to treat in excess of 70,000 patient visits each year. The project calls for a larger waiting area and dedicated treatment spaces for behavioral health, geriatric and pediatric emergencies. The redesign also will allow for better line of sight within the Emergency Department to assist physicians and staff manage patient needs. To learn more or make a donation please visit southnassaulifesaver.org.

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. The Oceanside 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 joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.