Long Island Community Hospital, NYU Langone agree to join forces
Long Island Community Hospital s moving ahead with plans to join NYU Langone Health. Credit: Long Island Community Hospital/Jim Lennon
The region’s last independent hospital, Long Island Community Hospital in Patchogue, is moving ahead with plans to join NYU Langone Health.
The two medical institutions said they signed an agreement Tuesday to bring the Suffolk County hospital into the Manhattan-based health system’s network, and they hope to receive approval from the state Department of Health and the Federal Trade Commission by the end of the year.
Richard T. Margulis, LICH’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the agreement "will allow us to continue to expand our services to meet the needs of our community and to more effectively meet the challenges of the ever-changing healthcare marketplace."
The deal will let LICH and NYU Langone "collaborate and share best practices to better meet the healthcare needs of the communities we serve," Dr. Robert I. Grossman, dean and CEO of NYU Langone, said in a statement.
LICH and NYU Langone signed a nonbinding agreement in April to begin discussing a potential merger. The local hospital’s previous discussions about a possible merger with Stony Brook Medicine did not lead to a deal.
A spokeswoman for LICH, Cynthia Ruf, said NYU will invest in upgrading the Suffolk County hospital’s services, including patient care, technology and other aspects of its operations. Formerly known as Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, the hospital treats 400,000 people a year.
Other formerly independent hospitals on the Island have said they’re saving tens of millions of dollars now that they can rely on larger health systems — including Stony Brook, Northwell Health and Mount Sinai Health System — to buy medical supplies in bulk, update their technology and negotiate contracts with managed-care companies.
In 2019, NYU Langone completed its merger with the former Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, which changed its name last year to NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island.
In early 2018, John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson joined Northwell Health, based in New Hyde Park. At about the same time, Oceanside-based South Nassau Communities Hospital joined Manhattan-based Mount Sinai Health System.
The former Southampton Hospital officially joined the Stony Brook health system in 2017 after a nearly five-year process.
Maura McDermott covers health care and other business news on Long Island.
