Catholic Health has opened a new urgent care facility at the Station Yards mixed-use development in Ronkonkoma.
The 2,631-square-foot Catholic Health Urgent Care at Ronkonkoma at 3 Hawkins Ave. offers a wide range of services, including physical exams, vaccinations, illness and injury treatment, as well as onsite high-definition X-ray capabilities for adult and pediatric patients, according to a written statement from the health system.
Operated in partnership with Excel Urgent Care, the new Ronkonkoma facility is the most recent in Catholic Health’s growing system of outpatient care locations in Nassau and Suffolk counties.
“This new Ronkonkoma facility is another step toward our goal of providing essential health care services to residents in every corner of Long Island,” Catholic Health President and CEO Patrick O’Shaughnessy said in the statement. “Whether someone walks in with an urgent medical issue or simply to get a flu shot on their commute home from work, our expert team will be there to provide the highest level of care.”
Kelley Coughlan Heck, executive vice president of Tritec Real Estate, which is developing the Station Yards project, said the company is delighted to welcome Catholic Health Services to the development.
“This new partnership aligns perfectly with our commitment to enhance the community with a mix of uses in our projects,” she said. “Their urgent care facility will provide a vital service for our tenants as well as local residents, reinforcing Station Yards not just as a center for commerce, but a hub of wellness and care too.”
Gus Nuzzolese of Colliers represented Catholic Health Services, while the team of Maria Valanzano, Steve D’Orazio and Jake Horowitz of Colliers, represented landlord Tritec in the lease transaction.
“Catholic Health Systems and their affiliated hospitals, practices, and professionals have represented top-quality healthcare across Long Island for decades,” D’Orazio said in the statement. “The placement of their urgent care model at Tritec’s Station Yards development will provide immediate and quality medical attention to address the local community’s needs. We’re thrilled to announce their addition to the project.”
When completed, Station Yards will transform 53 acres around the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station, bringing 1,450 apartments, 360,000 square feet of office space and 195,000 square feet of retail space, most of which surrounds a 10,000-square-foot village green.
The Catholic Health Urgent Care is the latest addition to the growing roster of restaurants, retail and service tenants at the sprawling Ronkonkoma development.
“We would like to acknowledge the work put in by the Catholic Health team and work of the leasing brokers, Gus Nuzzolese from Colliers representing CHS, and our team at Colliers – Maria Valanzano, Steve D’Orazio, and Jake Horowitz,” Coughlan Heck said in the statement. “Their collective efforts have enabled this significant addition to our project. We congratulate CHS on opening the doors of the new CHS urgent care facility, marking a new chapter in our collective commitment to serving the Ronkonkoma community.”
Catholic Health’s Mercy Hospital has begun work on a $6 million project to upgrade its emergency department.
The Mercy Hospital emergency department in Rockville Centre receives an average of 35,000 patient visits annually and the improvement project is aimed at upgrading the aesthetics and layout of the facility, allowing Mercy to maximize its overall operational effectiveness, according to a written statement.
Courtesy of Catholic Health/Mercy Hospital
The project includes creating a new triage area with electronic patient check-in kiosks, upgraded floors, new lighting, a new nursing station and new furniture. The EMS triage will be moved closer to the ambulance bay to allow for more streamlined communication and coordination with first responders. There will also be redesigned workspaces throughout the emergency department to allow for an improved work environment and better visualization for patient safety.
“Updating our ED is crucial in an effort to meet the needs of the community and to match the evolving trends in healthcare. It is important for us to modernize,” Mercy Hospital President Joseph Manopella said in the statement. “I’m excited for our upgraded ED as it hasn’t seen a functional or aesthetic modernization in over 20 years.”
Phase one of the project, which is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, will be done in several sub-phases. Once phase one is completed, Mercy hopes to begin work on phase two, which is expected to include plans to expand the square footage of the ED.
“Offering high quality care, while providing a safe environment remains a top priority,” Mercy Hospital COO Ihab Ibrahim said in the statement. “This is why we are targeting a different section of the ED during each sub-phase to ensure that there is no disruption of day-to-day operations for our staff, patients and EMS providers.”
Emergency staff members at Mercy Hospital, which has been serving the surrounding Rockville Centre community for over 100 years, are trained to treat all medical conditions, illnesses and injuries, use advanced diagnostic imaging and consult with the hospital’s specialists in multiple disciplines. Mercy Hospital has also earned Level 3 Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation, providing elderly patients who visit its ED with the necessary expertise, equipment and resources to deliver optimal care, according to the statement.
“The current aesthetic of the emergency department is a bit dated,” Dr. Robert Bramante, chairman of Emergency Medicine at Mercy, said in the statement. “This will help bring it up to what you would expect to see in a more modern hospital. Based on the plans and materials, when it’s complete, it is going to be a completely different experience.”
Catholic Health has been named the lead sponsor of the Amphitheater at Bald Hill, an outdoor concert and event facility that holds up to 7,000 people in Farmingville.
“We are thrilled to partner with Long Island Events and Amphitheater at Bald Hill, allowing us to connect to Long Islanders in a new, fun way,” Catholic Health President and CEO Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, said in a statement. “In addition to the high-quality health care services we provide, we want this partnership to serve as a reminder to our communities that we’re there for them.”
Operated by Brookhaven-based Long Island Events, the venue features concerts and music festivals. And Long Island Events says it is planning to invest in parking-lot upgrades, improved concession point of sale, new backstage amenities for performers, and lower pricing on select tickets for all shows.
“It was important to all of us at Long Island Events and the Town of Brookhaven that the venue naming rights agreement was made with a partner whose values align closely with ours,” John Caracciolo, CEO of Long Island Events and JVC Broadcasting, said in a statement.
“Catholic Health is committed to giving back to the community and represents the very best in the delivery of health care services. In partnering with our organization – Suffolk County’s largest outdoor venue—we’re offering Long Islanders a venue to safely enjoy with their loved ones and neighbors,” he added.
“This amphitheater is an incredible venue for live events, and we look forward to welcoming visitors to the Catholic Health Amphitheater at Bald Hill,” Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine said in a statement. “The partnership with our spectacular facility, right in the heart of our Town, and the opportunity to associate Catholic Health and JVC Broadcasting showcases our local brands for the benefit of our entire community.”
The naming rights partnership for The Catholic Health Amphitheater at Bald Hill was secured by JVC Broadcasting Company and EGC Media, which is headquartered in Melville.
As part of the partnership, Catholic Health Amphitheater at Bald Hill will feature signage atop the stage, at the facility entrance, on the LIE at Exit 63, as well as throughout the venue and on all promotional material for the venue, including radio and TV commercials.
Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health and Catholic Health Physician Partners Accountable Care Organization (ACO) is collaborating with the CVS ACO, a division of CVS Health based in Woonsocket, RI.
With this collaboration, the organizations aim to expand value-based care and health care access for Medicare beneficiaries across the Catholic Health Physician Network in New York.
Value-based care has received a lot of attention lately. The New England Journal of Medicine defines it as a model “in which providers, including hospitals and physicians, are paid based on patient health outcomes. Under value-based care agreements, providers are rewarded for helping patients improve their health, reduce the effects and incidence of chronic disease, and live healthier lives in an evidence-based way.”
In its partnership with CVS, Catholic Health seeks to build on its ACO program, boosting care for more than 40,000 Medicare beneficiaries on Long Island, and saving millions of dollars by meeting quality and total cost of care goals.
The two organizations say that the collaboration would help to strengthen care coordination for patients by providing customized support. That support includes home-based care, transportation support for annual wellness visits and connections to services to address social determinants of health.
It would also help improve support for Catholic Health providers, including primary care providers; enhance the health system’s care delivery service offerings, including adding same-day access, multidisciplinary chronic condition care management programs and analytics to allow physicians to provide top-of-license care; and utilize innovative value-based payments to incentivize providers, according to a news release about the partnership.
The agreement is based on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s redesigned direct contracting model, ACO REACH. ACO REACH prioritizes health equity, the coordination of care among health care providers to improve outcomes, and the reduction of unnecessary medical costs by moving patients toward value-based care, according to the news release.
“Catholic Health looks forward to working with CVS ACO and bringing these important care enhancements to our Medicare population,” Catholic Health President and CEO Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy said in a statement.
“As CVS’s exclusive health system partner in the Long Island market, we will be able to reach more patients as a unified resource and will provide new equity-focused clinical programs and services at a time when access to high-quality health care is more important than ever,” he added.
“We know value-based care, particularly for Medicare beneficiaries, can help dramatically improve outcomes for patients who need it most and achieve lower costs,” Dr. Mohamed Diab, the CEO of CVS Accountable Care Organization said in a statement.
“That’s why value-based care as a framework is central to our broader care delivery strategy,” Diab added. “CVS ACO is bringing to the table powerful tools to help provide coordinated, high-quality care to Medicare patients.”
Diab noted the ACO REACH program enables CVS ACO to employ community-based assets such as MinuteClinic retail health clinics, as well as the company’s data analytics and connected electronic medical record technology to support providers as they care for patients with complex medical histories. The program also provides administrative tasks that include appointment and lab scheduling assistance and delivers actionable insights at the point-of-care to help providers offer more personalized patient care. Overall, the partnership allows for more integration, data sharing and care coordination resulting in less fragmentation and ultimately the goal of better outcomes, according to the news release.
The collaboration builds on Catholic Health’s Physician Partner’s ACOs effortssin the Medicare Shared Savings Program to help ensure that patients have access to equitable, accessible and high-quality care.
Catholic Health and CVS Health say they are committed to “reducing health disparities that contribute to unequal health outcomes,” according to the news release.
“CVS Health is focused on advancing health equity for our customers, colleagues, clients and communities by improving health care access and quality of health for every patient we serve,” Diab said.
“At Catholic Health, we are grounded in our humanity and dedicated to the transformation of health care,” said O’Shaughnessy. “We remain dedicated to making a critical difference in the health trajectory of the underserved and to enhancing the care in the communities most in need. That is what health equity is all about.”
Catholic Health will join a growing national network of providers working within the CVS ACO framework to care for Medicare beneficiaries. This network includes other clinically integrated networks, primary care groups and Federally Qualified Health Centers.
As Catholic Health continues to grow, it is increasing access to healthcare while connecting people with the resources they need to thrive.
Much of this starts with addressing one of the nation’s most challenging issues: Food insecurity, which triggers chronic disease and even health crisis.
“It’s a big problem,” said Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, Catholic Health’s president and CEO.
“If we can bend the disease curve, we bend the cost curve,” O’Shaughnessy said. “It’s not sustainable to have healthcare expenditure north of 20% of the total gross domestic product even though we have great outcomes of care. We’re expecting far too much.”
In New York, more than 2.4 million people face food insecurity, including nearly 230,000 Long Islanders, 68,000 of whom are children and 4% are seniors, O’Shaughnessy said.
O’Shaughnessy discussed these challenges and more with Joe Dowd, editor and associate publisher of Long Island Business News, at LIBN’s annual Healthcare Forum, which aired Tuesday.
As Catholic Health expands across Long Island and into Brooklyn and Queens, it is investing in its hospitals and developing ambulatory spaces. The health system is focused on fostering its staff. It is also counseling patients on nutrition, providing them with the resources they need to eat nutritiously and avoid processed foods that trigger disease.
COVID-19 and the subsequent increase in food costs, O’Shaughnessy said, “really exacerbated the issue,” making it difficult for some to pay for nutritious grocery items.
Now, Catholic Health, the region’s second largest healthcare system, is seeking to reduce the disease burden. The health system has 1,900 licensed beds across six hospitals, three nursing homes, as well as home care and hospice. The system has 2,500 providers and is growing, including through its digital capabilities, working to make the region healthier, O’Shaughnessy said.
“I believe food is medicine,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Having good, healthy, nutritionally dense foods available for folks will give long benefit to reducing chronic disease … keeping people healthier.”
Now, O’Shaughnessy said, people at the county, state and national levels are realizing food’s potential impact on health.
But in households with persistent food insecurity, people are 40% more likely to be “diagnosed with a chronic condition,” O’Shaughnessy said. That includes “a higher probability of diabetes, stroke, hypertension, obesity, cancer, asthma, COPD and kidney disease.”
Food insecurity costs the region money. “On average food insecurity actually adds about 11% to the total healthcare cost of older adults,” O’Shaughnessy said.
In addition, food insecurity can create lifelong health challenges for children that can begin at an early age.
“You can have issues around increased body-mass index obesity,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We’re seeing more, younger patients with cardiovascular disease. It used to be cardiovascular disease was a disease of middle age, but you start laying down plaque in your arteries when you’re young, and if you’re eating the wrong foods consistently because that’s all you can afford,” the consequences can strike early.
“It is a big issue – it spans across all age groups,” he said. “It spans across all zip codes, and I believe by focusing on food insecurity, as a system, we can improve the patient’s quality of life and their overall health, trying to keep them out of the hospital.”
To foster health, “we screen people on time of admission to see how their diet is and what we could do to make improvements,” O’Shaughnessy said.
When needed, patients are given a bag of nutrition-dense food from Long Island Cares that will last several days.
“Then we plug them into other supplemental support,” O’Shaughnessy said, including through Catholic Charities, Health and Welfare Council of Long Island, and get them enrolled in Supplemental Nutritional Assistance programs and other programs, so they have more long-term sustainability to get good healthy food.”
O’Shaughnessy said “90% of these patients showed positive health outcome improvement, and in the cohorts that we treated in the home-care side of the organization [there were] zero emergency room visits and hospitalizations.”
Looking forward, “we have to have the very best and most talented workforce we have to offer state-of-the-art care, but we also have to grow and expand and make key investments in brick and mortar and new innovations with state-of-the-art facilities that can see patients in environments of which they want to be seen.”
The health system invested $500 million into a brand-new patient care pavilion at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip that will have a state-of-the-art large emergency room, 22 new state-of-the-art operating rooms and private patient rooms, O’Shaughnessy said.
Rendering of the new Patient Care Pavillion at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip. Courtesy of Catholic Health
The health system is also expanding on Long Island’s East End and into New York City with ambulatory care centers that range in size, offering urgent care, and where patients can see their primary care physician, see a specialist, get an image and “even have a great cup coffee,” O’Shaughnessy said.
“It’s delivering the right care in the right place at the right time by the right people,” O’Shaughnessy said.
“I’m very excited to lead Catholic Health into its future,” he said. “Our future is very bright.”
Here are some highlights from the panel discussions at LIBN’s Healthcare Forum.
A Helping Hand in Healthcare: How nonprofits are providing much-needed mental health services
Panelists: Martha Carlin, Director, Long Island Field Office at NYS Office of Mental Health; Robert Detor, CEO, Advance Health Network/ Recovery Health Solutions; Kathy Rivera, CEO, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center
The need for mental health services on Long Island is escalating.
Since COVID-19, “the mental health crisis on Long Island continues to grow and reach epidemic proportions,” Friedman said. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the rates of depression, suicide, anxiety disorder and PTSD, in addition to the increase in substance use disorder.”
Now, mental health experts in the region are working to reinvent services to dramatically change how patients can access treatment and improve healthcare while reducing costs.
“Funders have been moving toward a value-based care reimbursement” model, Friedman said. Rather than using a fee-for-service model, a value-based care model is “contingent on the quality of care provided, and it’s directly correlated to the patient’s outcome. Benefits include reducing overall spending and better overall health.”
Research shows that the advancement of the information technology and the inclusion of behavioral health into a primary medical care system can help improve care and reduce costs, Detor said.
“You would impact the quality of care. You also change the utilization patterns away from the emergency room and inpatient care and you also significantly reduce the cost, especially for chronic conditions,” Detor said.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul “has invested close to $1 billion in mental health,” Carlin said. The governor has put a priority on finding ways “to have more services in the community” with the “idea of integration being critical especially when it comes to children and families,” Carlin said. This focus can help prevent the need for emergency room visits, she said.
And although everyone was impacted by the pandemic, people managed to access mental health care through telehealth.
“We were able to pivot quickly,” Rivera said. That included training staff and families and ensuring that families had access to telehealth services.
“We created a sense of equity and reduced access barriers,” Rivera said.
“Single mothers with multiple children with special needs were now able to participate more actively in services because they didn’t have that parental stress of trying to get to us,” she said. “We’re talking about a very vulnerable population.”
Now, nonprofits – both in healthcare and other sectors – are struggling to attract and retain talent for these much-needed services.
Despite these challenges, Carlin said, “the hope is that with the appropriate funding for these programs, we are going to expand capacity.
– ADINA GENN
Workforce Development: Shaping the next generation of healthcare workers
Moderator: Gordon Schmidt, Dean of School of Health Professions, New York Institute of Technology
Panelists: Djimmitry JeanLouis, Alumnus, New York Institute of Technology; John Karaptis, Alumnus, New York Institute of Technology; Dr. Donna Marie McMahon, Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Professor, College of Osteopathic Medicine, New York Institute of Technology
Developing a workforce in healthcare presents many challenges, as burnout from the pandemic and myriad opportunities in other sectors are pulling talent away.
To address the issues involved in workforce development, Gordon Schmidt, a dean with the School of Health Professions at New York Institute of Technology, moderated a panel discussion on the challenges of educating and training and how to best shape the next generation of healthcare workers.
Healthcare students on the campus of New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury. Courtesy of NYIT
“Sometimes we find that the need for employees does not meet the availability,” said Schmidt. “It’s estimated there are probably 500,000 employees still needed in healthcare and possibly because of the pandemic we see that this is more critical than ever.”
McMahon said that about 53 percent of NYIT graduates enter primary care and the rest of them enter subspecialties, some of which are more in demand.
“We have a need in developmental pediatrics, those professionals who evaluate and treat children with developmental disabilities are on the autism spectrum,” she said. There’s a big need for more pediatric neurologists and we need more psychiatrists who are able to have a large impact on the community instead of just in small private practices that don’t accept any insurance.”
When it comes to physicians’ assistants, Karaptis said the demand is currently being met in the New York area, but he added that the demand is sure to increase, since the trend is to employ more PA’s at reduced costs than doctors.
“What we’re seeing now in some of the ancillary areas of healthcare, particularly with respiratory therapy and anesthesia technicians, there is a severe shortage currently for these positions in hospitals and it’s a very big problem. There are not enough training programs and the current training programs aren’t large enough, so that is an area that’s going to have to be looked at.”
One area where there’s been shortages of staff is nursing. JeanLouis said the nurses now have the upper hand in negotiating their salaries and the industry is seeing a shortage when it comes to the ancillary staff. And that’s why more health systems are looking to employ nursing assistants.
“With the nursing assistants, there are not that many programs, so we have seen employers working with those respective unions to basically have small programs geared towards getting support,” JeanLouis said.
One big change in healthcare education, says McMahon, is that residency programs have picked up on the importance of cultural competence.
“Before, it wasn’t about you, it was about me, and now we’ve finally turned the tide and it’s about you, it’s not about me,” she said. “So I’m happy to say that I can see it within the institution, and I can see it certainly with our students that they see the importance of that cultural competence.”
– DAVID WINZELBERG
Behavioral Health Crisis Response and Care: Why immediate response is crucial
Moderator: Jeff Steigman, Chief Strategy Officer, Family Service League
Panelists: Melissa Coscia, Director of Clinical Crisis and Stabilization Services, Family Service League; Bridget Topping, Police Officer, Behavioral Health Unit, Suffolk County Police Department
Family Service League offices in Huntington. Google Maps image
The need for crisis response in behavioral health is more pressing than ever. And programs like the Family Service League’s Diagnostic Assessment and Stabilization Hub (DASH) have developed into essential tools, forging critical relationships with law enforcement that can relieve the burden that police face in dealing with those struggling with mental health issues.
“If you provide the crisis services at the right time and in the right setting and by the appropriate professionals, it will result in better outcomes in the shorter and longer term,” Steigman said. “One of our goals is to be able to move as far upstream as possible to be able to provide alternative interventions and alternatives from higher levels of care to be able to do something that’s more preventive than reactive.”
Steigman says the DASH program has “really moved the needle” in coming up with new approaches on partnering with law enforcement to provide the best outcomes.
“It removes law enforcement from that de facto position of being a substance abuse counselor or mental health counselor, where really that’s not their role,” he said.
Coscia said that DASH operates 24/7, 365 days a year and participation is 100 percent voluntary.
“DASH is designed so that we can break down barriers to make it easy for people to access care and that we can engage a variety of different individuals experiencing a variety of different behavioral health crises,” she said.
Coscia added that DASH is located in an industrial park and very private.
“Our length of stay is about three hours for a typical assessment, but we can work with somebody up to 23 hours and 59 minutes if they need more support or more services,” Coscia said. “We are very flexible with the way that we use our space. Sometimes we have an individual coming in alone, sometimes they come with multiple family members. Minors on site always have to be accompanied by an adult because we treat children from five and up in an unlocked environment.”
Topping said the Suffolk County Police Department created its Behavioral Health Unit in August 2021 and it’s been working with the Family Service League’s DASH to assist officers in the field.
“Telehealth is an option for officers working in crisis intervention where they can engage with a licensed clinical social worker at DASH who can assess the individual and make the determination to see if that person should be transported to the Stony Brook CPEP (Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program) or can come to DASH,” Topping said. “Our officers love it. They are using it constantly. The community loves it, which is most important. People are really seeing this collaboration between the police department and mental health field where they’re just really happy to see this multifaceted approach.”
– DAVID WINZELBERG
Healthcare Compliance Regulations for the Business Community: Why does it matter?
Moderator: Adina Genn, Long Island Business News
Panelists: Roy W. Breitenbach, Partner, Harris Beach PLLC and Health Care Industry Team Leader; Marc Lion, Partner, Mazars
With the increasing number of consolidations and acquisitions in the medical field, paying attention to healthcare compliance regulations is more critical than ever. And where most healthcare professionals concentrate on their individual disciplines, compliance regulations can’t be ignored and engaging professionals well-versed in the topic is becoming more and more necessary. It even has consequences for owners of medical office real estate.
“It’s important for all providers because if they want to do any type of business, they want to go out and get private equity, they want to run an efficient practice, they want to talk about merging with a hospital, compliance is fundamentally at everything,” Breitenbach said. “You don’t want the government knocking on your door with the problem. You want to nip problems in the bud, so all healthcare providers have to be very aware of compliance and the growing importance every time you deal with the payer, every time you deal with the government, you need to make sure that you have an effective compliance program.”
Lion said people go to medical school to learn how to become physicians, but not necessarily business owners.
“I hear they are starting some programs here and there where they do teach some portions of business to the younger folk, but they don’t teach you how to run a business and they don’t teach you how to start a business,” Lion said. “We probably have a six- or seven-page checklist with the things that you need to do to start up your own practice.”
Lion added that besides renting space, hiring staff, and buying supplies and equipment, there’s also a lot of regulatory components, including which forms need to be in place, how patient intake will work and how to properly train staff.
“We’re still seeing a good bit of consolidation in the industry, and this is where having a good compliance regulatory program in your practice comes into play,” he said. “Because if you are going to entertain an offer from a private equity group or a large practice that’s backed by private equity, some of the things are going to come in during the due diligence exercise.”
Breitenbach cautions that compliance issues can also arise in many healthcare mergers and partnerships.
“If you’re partnering with a group of healthcare providers and those group of healthcare providers actually have or potentially could have referral relationships among them, that could impact things like lease terms and valuation,” he said. “Because so many of the healthcare abuse laws are meant to capture people inducing referrals or inducing kickbacks or things like that.”
