LI health facilities to share $43.2M in state grant

Children recovering from serious injury and in need of long-term ventilator care will soon have a place to be rehabilitated on Long Island instead of having to travel upstate or to Pennsylvania.

A $3.2 million state grant announced Friday by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will allow St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson and Our Lady of Consolation in West Islip to provide acute ventilator care.

The grant was one of four to Long Island institutions announced Friday totaling $43.2 million. The funding comes from the state’s Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law, passed in 2004.

Nassau Health Care Corp., which runs Nassau University Medical Center and A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility, received the largest sum, $18 million. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services was awarded $17 million, and Long Beach Medical Center got $4.9 million.

Joseph Tomaino, executive vice president of Catholic Health Services, was thrilled. “Many of these children will have years or even a lifetime of recovery,” he said. “We’re trying to return the kids to their homes.”

The grant money also will help fund major hospital renovations, including new facilities at Long Beach Medical Center, which was built in 1924. There will be new floors and windows, a state-of-the-art intercom system, and improved nursing stations and computer systems.

Arthur A. Gianelli, president and chief executive of the Nassau Health Care Corp., in a statement, called the grant an exciting opportunity. 

“The grant will help us to expand primary care and chemical dependency outpatient services at NUMC, restructure our care delivery model, and improve the health outcomes of Nassau’s most vulnerable populations,” Gianelli said.