Mount Sinai South Nassau begins work on 100,000-square-foot expansion

Mount Sinai South Nassau on Tuesday plans to break ground on a $130 million, four-story addition that will double the size of its emergency department, add a 40-bed critical care unit, and nine new operating suites at its main campus in Oceanside.

The Manhattan-based health system said the 100,000-square-foot expansion is the cornerstone of the hospital’s ongoing $400 million capital expansion project.

"We serve an area that covers more than 900,000 residents in Nassau County," said Dr. Adhi Sharma, chief medical officer at Mount Sinai South Nassau. "As the needs of the community have increased over the last 20 to 30 years, we've offered more comprehensive care. This is the next step."

Sharma said patients who arrive at the hospital are generally older with more advanced diseases that require more critical care beds. The addition’s surgical suites also are larger to allow for sophisticated diagnostic equipment to be located directly in the operating rooms. The new operating suites also could pave the way for an open-heart program at the Oceanside campus, pending Department of Health approval, the health system said.

Also, the hospital’s emergency department treats about 65,000 patients annually, but is designed to handle only 35,000. Upon the completion of the expansion, the emergency department's square footage will nearly double and will include separate treatment areas for geriatric and behavioral health patients.

The money being used to build the newest expansion, which is expected to be completed in 2023, comes partly from the $158 million of Federal Emergency Management Agency funds awarded to Mount Sinai South Nassau in 2015 to restore health care in Long Beach and expand services for the entire South Shore of Nassau County.

In November 2020, the hospital broke ground on a $35-million, 15,000-square-foot medical arts pavilion in Long Beach near the site of the former Long Beach Medical Center.

Mount Sinai South Nassau has other expansion plans. Along with the 15,400-square-foot, single-story Long Beach Medical Arts Pavilion, projected to open in the fall of 2022, a new $103-million power plant at the Oceanside campus will upgrade the hospital’s electrical, heating, ventilation and cooling systems and fortify the hospital’s infrastructure against potential future storms.

The capital expansion project also calls for the future construction of a new $28-million parking structure.

Hospitals throughout Long Island are in expansion mode. For example, Catholic Health plans to invest more than $525 million to expand Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip. Catholic Health said it plans to add a 16-operating room surgical suite and a 36-bed, private-room inpatient floor.

Northwell Health is in the middle of constructing its $325 million Petrocelli Advanced Surgical Pavilion at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Northwell recently held a steel beam topping-off ceremony at the pavilion, which is more than a year into construction. It’s scheduled to be completed in 2023, and will be seven stories and 280,000 square feet when done.