Village Partners With North Shore LIJ For Emergency Care Facility

The question has finally been answered- North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital will be heading up the Massapequa Park Emergency Care Facility when it opens its doors in the near future.

This week Mayor James Altadonna put to rest the question of which medical provider the Village would be partnering with for the upcoming facility after months of speculation.

“We started searching for a partner about six months ago,” he said. “With the loss of Brunswick Hospital and Massapequa General, we felt that this community was under-served, and we looked to remedy that.”

Among the prospective medical institutions that were considered for partnerships in this venture were several Catholic hospitals, but in the end it was decided that North Shore Long Island Jewish would be the Village’s choice.

“It wasn’t a quality of care issue...they all had excellent care,” he said. “The reason we chose North Shore LIJ was just the fact that they were further along in the process of the stand-alone facilities.”

While Altadonna said that the details of the agreement could not be disclosed by the Village at the present time, he did declare that the benefits of the partnership for the Village will be numerous.

“Our main function here is to save lives,” he said. “But it will also be an economic boost to our business district; it’ll be jobs for our community; and it’ll bring a measure of safety that we don’t have now.”

At the moment, a location has not been decided upon for the Massapequa Park Emergency Care Facility. As for when residents can expect it to officially open its doors for business, Altadonna tentatively hopes it will be within the next two years.

“We have to go through the licensing with the state, and we need the help of all our elected officials to get this license,” he said. “Once we get the license approved, we’ll be able to have a definitive timeline.”

“It goes by the state, it goes by construction, by acquiring the land...there’s many obstacles that we have to overcome,” Altadonna added. “But we’re diligent in trying to put this facility up.”