Building boom a shot in arm for LI hospitals

'This area is under renovation" reads the sign taped to the wall outside the amphitheater at Nassau University Medical Center.

Down and across the hall from the amphitheater at the East Meadow hospital, the sounds of drilling and hammering echo through what will soon be the new emergency department - part of a $220-million expansion and renovation that will also include upgrading the eye center, the ambulatory surgery unit, the ninth and 10th floors and most of the intensive-care units, as well as replacing the A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility in Uniondale.

This same sign could be posted at hospitals all across Long Island. Fifteen of the Island's 25 hospitals - both public and nonprofit - have recently finished, are undergoing or are about to embark upon expansions and renovations that are contributing about $2.1 billion to the economy and adding hundreds of construction jobs. The expansion is being primarily driven by aging buildings and an aging population, hospital officials said. The availability of state grants and federal funds - some of it stimulus money or part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul - has helped some hospitals. Lower construction costs because of the poor economy also have been a boon.

Industry healthy on Long Island

The projects dovetail with the growth in health care on Long Island: Nassau and Suffolk added 4,500 health care jobs from August 2009 to August 2010, a 2.4 percent increase, according to the state Department of Labor. The number of hospital jobs alone increased 1.8 percent during this period.

Building projects range from the major to the modest: The North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System alone accounts for about $1.28 billion of the plans, paid for by fundraising, operating capital and state bonds. The projects include a women's hospital and a 200,000-square-foot surgical and critical-care building at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. A women's hospital and pavilion are being built at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, along with a new pavilion for its Zucker Hillside psychiatric hospital. The system also plans to expand its children's hospital on the LIJ campus by more than 100,000 square feet. And Southside Hospital in Bay Shore is about to get a $300-million makeover.

On the other end of the spectrum, John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson has scheduled a ribbon-cutting Oct. 29 for a new $1.68-million infusion center for patients with cancer, heart failure or other chronic illnesses, primarily funded by a state grant.

The flurry of building has helped the local economy since the recession, said Pearl Kamer, chief economist for the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group. "Construction was one of the hardest hit industries," she said.

Kamer said the $2.1 billion in construction actually has double the impact on the output of goods and services on Long Island, contributing over time about $4.2 billion to Nassau and Suffolk's $137-billion gross regional product. And for every million dollars spent on construction, Kamer said, 15 "secondary" jobs are created throughout the economy in any industry.

"It could have been a lot worse if it hadn't been for the hospitals," said Jimmy Castellane, president of the Building and Construction Trades of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, who said that 30 percent of his members are still out of work.

'Recession proof'

Equally important is the number of health care jobs the construction helps to ensure. Health care is one of Long Island's largest industries, accounting for about 15 percent of jobs, according to August state Department of Labor figures. And one of its most robust.

"The health care sector continued to add jobs throughout the past decade, even during the recent recession," a Long Island Association report released in April said. "It has proven to be one of the few seemingly 'recession proof' industries on Long Island." North Shore-LIJ - the Island's largest employer with 29,480 employees - hired 3,451 workers for its Long Island facilities last year.

What's chiefly driving the building is the region's aging hospital facilities, said Kevin Dahill, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council. Hospitals have to upgrade in order to provide the basic standard of care and remain compliant with government regulations, he said.

"We're starting out so woefully behind. We have 35- to 40-year-old facilities where we have four patients in a room, ventilation systems that don't address communicable diseases, and the fact that we're now delivering care more on an ambulatory basis rather than on an inpatient basis," he said. "We're operating out of [old] facilities in which medicine is [now] delivered differently."

Patients are also demanding more and hospitals must meet their needs to stay competitive, said Michael Dowling, chief executive of North Shore-LIJ, the nation's second largest, nonprofit, secular health care system. (New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System in New York City is the largest, according to the magazine "Modern Healthcare.") No longer do women want to share rooms in the maternity and labor unit, Dowling said - a reason why the health system is building a $50-million women's hospital at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and a 10-story women's hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park for $255 million.

A bad economy also has its upside, Dowling said. "Now is the time to invest. I can get better prices for construction," Dowling said, referring to lower costs for materials and to deals he has been able to strike with the unions. "I benefit and the economy benefits."

More jobs in coming years

The health system said all of its building means that between 400 to 450 people will be working construction jobs at any one time over the next four to five years. That's in addition to the 76 health care workers hired by North Shore-LIJ each week - most of them on Long Island.

Aging and cramped facilities and the need to remain competitive are behind Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola spending about $96 million on building a new heart institute, a new basic science, translational and outcomes research center, and a neurosurgery stroke-spine stepdown unit as well as adding much-needed parking space and a new main entrance. "A world-class hospital should have a world-class entrance," spokesman John Broder quoted a donor as saying.

The aging population and the economic downturn are also driving the kinds of projects being built: Five other hospitals beside NUMC are expanding or have plans to expand their emergency departments. Emergency departments - where people go when they are very ill or have no health insurance - have seen an uptick since the recession. Nassau and Suffolk hospitals served 51,436 more ER patients in 2009 than they did in 2006, a 5.6 percent increase, according to Wendy Darwell, vice president of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council.

The 214-bed Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead previously renovated its emergency room. Andrew Mitchell, Peconic's chief executive, said so many more older people have retired to the East End that the hospital spent $35 million for an expanded emergency department and for a new center for advanced surgery, both completed in the spring of 2009. The hospital is now in the midst of building a $5-million, 18-bed acute rehabilitation unit, to be paid for by a state grant and fundraising, and is in the planning stages to build a 120-unit affordable assisted living complex and a parking garage that would cost $30 million.

"When you combine the fact of growth and aging in place, the demand for hospital acute care is growing dramatically," he said.

Government money

Dr. Steven Strongwater, chief executive at Stony Brook University Medical Center, said Obama's health care overhaul is also playing a role in the expansion, especially in the area of information technology. Stony Brook is finishing the final phases of a $61-million major modernization project, being paid for through operating funds and state bonds. The project includes renovating the emergency department, the post-anesthesia unit, the labor and delivery suite and the neonatal intensive care unit; building a 10,000-square-foot space for a psychiatric emergency program, and upgrading the endoscopy procedure rooms. Another $20 million of projects are being planned.

"Incentive money is in front of everybody," Strongwater said. "There's a huge demand for IT technician software people . . . we definitely have expanded in IT to get electronic medical records in place."

The federal government is also spending about $136 million - some of it stimulus money - in renovations and upgrades at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center. So many projects are under way or in the works, the VA has hired two engineers and is looking to hire two architects and one more engineer, said Chris Gowrie, chief of engineering. That is on top of the 50 to 75 construction workers on the site at all times, he said.

State grants under the Healthcare Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers Capital Grant Program passed in 2004 have helped many of the smaller or less well off hospitals. About $1.5 million for Mather's infusion center was paid for with a HEAL grant. Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center in Patchogue got $10.1 million in HEAL grants to expand its emergency department and develop a primary care center in North Bellport. NUMC was just awarded a $7-million HEAL grant for its modernization program.

All of which should add up to better health care and more jobs to boot, hospital officials said.

"This is not construction for construction's sake," Dowling said. "This is to position ourselves to improve the quality of care and meet the demands of the consumer."