Mount Sinai South Nassau to open operating rooms, expanding patient access to open heart surgery

Mount Sinai South Nassa u hospital is planning to open nine operating rooms at its Oceanside facility as it expands access to patients seeking cardiac surgeries.

The operating rooms, on the second floor of the Feil Family Pavilion, are designed to address the community's need for quicker access to elective and emergency surgeries, according to the hospital. 

Five of the nine operating rooms are scheduled to open in July, said Joe Calderone, senior vice president of communications and development for the hospital. The remaining four — two to be used for the hospital's first open-heart surgeries and two for neurosurgery — are slated to open in the fall, he said.

"We now currently have patients that we have to send to the city for open heart," Calderone said. "That's a tremendous wear and tear on the patients, their families, the follow-up, the pre-surgical, all of that." 

The hospital does not yet perform open heart surgeries. Doctors at Mount Sinai South Nassau perform more than 12,000 other surgeries a year, including joint replacements and cancer surgery, according to a hospital news release.

The new operating rooms are more than double the size of the smallest existing operating rooms, Calderone said. Two larger "hybrid operating rooms" will be used for more complex procedures, he said.

"We need a lot of technology in the room, space for various teams to work together," said Dr. Rajiv Datta, chair of the department of surgery. "Our current ORs, the size is outdated, so we have the specialists available, but they do not have the rooms available."

The operating rooms are also equipped with advanced technology, including touchless entrances and colored lighting that does not interfere with the surgeon's process, Datta said. White flooring reflects the light, enhancing the doctor's view of the tissue, and the floor is soundproof, he said.

The $500 million, multiyear campus expansion project, which is nearing completion, included the building of the $155 million, four-story Feil Family Pavillion, Calderone said.

The pavilion hosts a renovated emergency department, nine new operating rooms and 40 critical care beds, Calderone said.

The goal of the project at South Nassau was to meet the needs of the South Shore community, as well as introduce an open-heart surgery program, Calderone said. Surgeons from the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in Manhattan will perform the procedures, he added.

"This is all part of the strategic plan based on the community need," Calderone said. "Our patients on Long Island are getting older."

Dr. Adhi Sharma, president of Mount Sinai South Nassau, said the ORs set up the hospital for a future that includes the use of technology like robots, biplanes and other imaging devices in the operating room.

"Medicine is always advancing, technology's always advancing, and what worked 20 years ago is very different than it is today," Sharma said.

Across Long Island, various hospitals already have "very sophisticated heart programs," said Wendy Darwell, president and CEO of the Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State.

The expansion at South Nassau is "bringing access to care to that part of Long Island," she said.

Any time there is an expansion of very complex services, the entire region benefits, Darwell said. 

"Because that means that patients can stay on Long Island for their care," she said.

By Arielle Dollinger

arielle.dollinger@newsday.com@aridollinger

Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.