Under an agreement between the hospital and Long Beach, South Nassau ambulances stationed at the current Urgent Care Center in Long Beach will respond when needed as backup for 9-1-1 calls.

1. For Immediate Release April 14, 2015
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
South Nassau & City of Long Beach Partner to Improve EMS Ambulance
System
for Residents of the Barrier Island
Oceanside, NY — South Nassau Communities Hospital will partner with the City of Long Beach to
augment the City’s existing ambulance fleet by providing secondary backup for 9-1-1- ambulance calls.
Under an agreement between the hospital and Long Beach, South Nassau ambulances stationed at the
current Urgent Care Center in Long Beach will respond when needed as backup for 9-1-1 calls. South Nassau
ambulances will be staffed by a paramedic who will be able to communicate with a physician trained in
emergency medicine to ensure proper treatment on the scene or while a patient is en route.
“South Nassau has made a major commitment to improve medical services on the barrier island in the
wake of Superstorm Sandy so this agreement with the City of Long Beach to provide secondary backup for 9-1-
1- ambulance calls is a logical next step as part of our overall plan,” said Richard J. Murphy, President & CEO
of South Nassau Communities Hospital. “This move should help improve response time for residents while
better coordinating emergency care. We commend the City of Long Beach for taking steps to improve its pre-
hospital EMS system and are proud to partner with the City on this important initiative.”
City officials praised South Nassau for agreeing to step forward to help the City improve its EMS
response.
“As recommended by public safety experts, the City and South Nassau are now working together to
augment the City’s existing ambulance fleet with South Nassau’s ambulances, and institutional capabilities,
creating synergies that will result in enhanced services for residents on our barrier island,” said Long Beach
City Manager Jack Schnirman. “With more ambulances, at a lower cost, we are clearly ensuring a greater level
of safety than ever before.”
“These ambulances provide the latest in pre-hospital care, using state-of-the-art technology-based
solutions to coordinate patient care, during peak time hours, by paramedics staffed in advanced life support
equipped ambulances,” said Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins. “It is also important to note that these
ambulances will be secondary responses to our internal unit of paramedics.”
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2. South Nassau’s involvement in the Long Beach EMS partnership will be overseen by Dr. Joshua Kugler,
Chair of Emergency Medicine and Emergency Services Director who also serves as Chair of the Nassau County
Regional Emergency Medical Advisory Committee. “This partnership is designed to improve the quality of
emergency medical services for the residents of the barrier island,” said Dr. Kugler. “The way to improve
patient outcomes is to provide proper treatment in the field where every moment matters before a patient even
reaches an Emergency Room. We will be working closely with the City’s corps of paid and volunteer first
responders to coordinate the best approach when we are called as backup to the City’s existing EMS response
system.”
South Nassau announced last month that it intends to invest $5 million to upgrade its current Urgent
Care Center – located on the grounds of the former Long Beach Medical Center – to an off-campus Emergency
Department by July 1 (pending NYS Department of Health approval) that will operate 24/7 and will be able to
receive ambulances via the 9-1-1 system. This move is expected to significantly reduce turnaround time for
volunteer and paid ambulance crews across the barrier island. South Nassau’s Emergency Department in Long
Beach will be staffed by nurses and physicians trained in emergency medicine. In addition, South Nassau has
announced plans for a two-story, 30,000 sq. ft. Medical Arts Pavilion that would be the permanent home of its
off-campus Emergency Department.
The EMS partnership with Long Beach combined with the off-campus emergency services department
in Long Beach are two essential steps of South Nassau’s plan to improve medical services for barrier island
residents.
SNUCC’s recently move into a temporary mobile urgent medical care unit located at the same street
address, 325 East Bay Dr. in Long Beach, where it has been operating since first opening July 1, 2014. South
Nassau took this action to expedite the $5 million expansion and to ensure that there is no disruption of
residents’ access of hospital-quality urgent medical care.
Contingent on the timely review and approval of the Certificate of Need for the emergency services
department recently filed with the New York State Department of Health, South Nassau expects the off-campus,
emergency services department to be fully operational by July 1, 2015. In order to meet state requirements for
certification as an off-campus Emergency Department, SNUCC requires significant upgrades including (but not
limited to) an 600-square foot expansion to include three observation beds, an emergency generator, wider
corridors and a new ventilation system. The $5 million investment in the expansion is in addition to the $5
million South Nassau invested to open SNUCC last July.
The emergency department will be staffed by physicians board-certified in emergency medicine. As per
existing Department of Health protocol, all acute strokes, heart attacks and trauma patients transported by EMS
will be brought to the appropriate state-designated hospital. Any patient who requires hospital admission or
advanced levels of treatment will be transferred from the off-campus Emergency Department in Long Beach to
the South Nassau campus in Oceanside, or the appropriate hospital. South Nassau, which services some 900,000

3. residents of the South Shore from Queens to Suffolk County, is a Level II trauma center and advanced cardiac
center.
Since opening its doors to serve the Long Beach community, more than 2,400 patients have been treated
at SNUCC. The center provides hospital grade treatment and triage by board-certified emergency service
trained physicians for a wide array of urgent medical conditions as well as ambulatory care with subspecialty
backup supported through an integrated information technology system connecting the center to South Nassau’s
main campus in Oceanside. Care is provided on a walk-in basis, with no appointments required, 9AM-9PM
Monday-Friday, and 10AM-8PM Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Patients who are assessed as in need of
further emergency care or hospitalization are transported to South Nassau or the appropriate hospital via on-site
ambulance services.
The Urgent Care Center combines with the Family Medicine Center at Long Beach to provide residents
of Long Beach and surrounding communities a continuum of hospital-grade urgent care and family medicine.
Since its separate opening in May of 2014, the Family Medicine Center at Long Beach has totaled 2,400 patient
visits from residents of Long Beach.
South Nassau is the only hospital on Long Island to win four major awards for quality in recent months,
including for nursing excellence, patient safety and top rankings from U.S. News & World Report & from the
Joint Commission.
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, maternity, 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.
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