Board OKs lease to build satellite ER at Southampton Hospital

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is one step closer to building a satellite emergency room on the East End after the East Hampton Town Board approved a lease to build the facility on town-owned land.

East Hampton residents sometimes have to travel more than an hour to receive emergency care at the nearest 911-receiving facility at the Southampton Village hospital, those who spoke in favor of the proposal noted during a public hearing on Thursday. The public was largely in support of the plan and the board voted 5-0 in favor of leasing the 4.5–acre Pantigo Place property following the hearing.

“Ultimately, it will improve quality of life for people in our communities,” Stony Brook Southampton chief executive Robert Chaloner said during the hearing.

The overall goal of the 27,000-square-foot facility will be to stabilize and assess patients, Chaloner said. No one would be admitted, there would be no operating room and those with severe conditions, such as brain trauma or stroke, would be transported to another facility.

Plans call for seven treatment rooms, a bariatric room and an obstetrics and gynecology room, as well as a stat laboratory capable of performing rapid tests, a pharmacy and diagnostic imaging, including a CT scanner and radiology room, according to the town.

The terms of the lease stipulate the hospital pays $20 per year plus up to $1.75 million to relocate the town’s ballfields, which are now on the Pantigo Place site. The agreement is for 50 years, with an option to extend it 25 years and another 24 years after that.

Chaloner also mentioned plans to build a hospital on Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus, 4 miles west of the current hospital, which makes the need for a satellite emergency room even greater. A 911-receiving facility in East Hampton would alleviate pressure on EMTs who might spend several hours transporting a patient from Montauk to Southampton.

“We can almost fly to Stony Brook [University Medical Center in Stony Brook] as fast as we can get to Southampton now,” said Montauk Fire Department Chief Vincent Franzone.

George Dempsey, a family medicine doctor whose office is also on Pantigo Place, said he was largely in favor of the plan, but called for a broader conversation on the community’s long-term medical needs.

“I feel the town needs a vision and an overall plan for all of the services in the community,” Dempsey said.

A hospital spokeswoman said Stony Brook Southampton would welcome more community input on the facility.