PBMC is planning a May 23 ribbon-cutting for its expanded emergency department

Peconic Bay Medical Center is planning a May 23 ribbon-cutting ceremony for its expanded and updated emergency department.

The Poole Family Trauma & Emergency Center, announced in June 2023, will increase the emergency department by more than 6,600 square feet. The larger emergency department will enable PBMC to implement more life-saving technology, including a dual bay trauma unit and additional cardiac response units, according to PBMC’s press release.  The expansion is also expected to increase capacity by more than 75% to accommodate the rise in patient volumes. 

“We saw 40,000 patients in our emergency department last year,” PBMC Executive Director Amy Loeb told members of the Greater Jamesport Civic Association at its meeting Saturday morning. “At the time our department was built, we saw probably half that,” she said. “So in short, our emergency department is too small. And it was not built at a time that we were taking care of traumas and heart attacks and strokes to the extent that we are today.”

The new facility will be state-of-the-art, Loeb said, with an additional CT-scanner and connectivity to Northwell’s e-ICU system and telemedicine, Loeb said.

The facility will have separate areas for treating complex and simpler emergency room patients, each area with its own dedicated team of healthcare professionals, she said. This will make the department more efficient and effective, Loeb said.

It will make patient experience “far better,” she said, because while patients with life-threatening conditions will quickly get the treatment they need, patients with less serious conditions will also quickly get treatment and be discharged more quickly.

 The May 23 ribbon-cutting is a “tight goal,” she said. “We haven’t sent out invitations yet. The State Department of Health has to do the final inspection before the facility can accept patients, she said. 

The hospital’s next capital project is already being designed. The hospital wing along Route 58, which was built in the 1980s, which previously housed the skilled nursing facility, is being renovated as a center for women and infants. 

“We are well into the design phase,” Loeb said.

The renovation will also bring a major infrastructure upgrade to the building wing — including replacing the windows to keep the south-facing rooms cooler in summer more efficiently. The second and third floors, which are shorter than the ground floor, will be extended so that the renovated wing will be squared off on its eastern end, she said.

“​​But at the end of it, what we’ll have is about 20 to 24 more beds. These will be single-patient rooms. A more modern facility from an infrastructure standpoint, and a center for women and infants,” Loeb said. “So that is super exciting.” 

The design of the center for women and infants is nearly complete and the hospital will soon be submitting the paperwork to the State Department of Health for approval. Then it will finalize plans for the remainder of the renovation, which currently are in the concept phase.

“We want the building to be as modern and prepared as the people who are doing the work inside it,” Loeb said.

The center for women and infants will have a separate entrance. “It’s almost like a hospital within a hospital,” Loeb said. “It will have its own operating rooms. All its patient rooms will be private.”

Loeb said the hospital is waiting for the state to finalize new regulations and then will apply for certification as a level-two neonatal intensive care unit.

“I think anyone who has experienced themselves, or a loved one who had a baby in the NIC-U, when it’s not available in the community and you have to travel to go see your child — and this could be weeks, in some cases longer — that is a real strain on the family,” Loeb said. “And we feel that we need to be here for the community to provide that service.”

The hospital is working on a long-term master plan for the hospital campus. Loeb said the hospital is fortunate to have been able to purchase the McGann-Mercy campus, because, she said, most hospitals in this region “are absolutely landlocked.” PBMC is in a unique position because its campus affords room to grow. “Our possibilities for growth on this piece of property is really extraordinary,” Loeb said.

The hospital administration is thinking about things such as workforce housing, Loeb said, “because we know it’s a struggle and we need our team members to be able to live and work here.”

Nothing is set in stone, she said, “because we have these three major projects, which are just shy of $100 million. It’s a big investment in the community.” Loeb expressed gratitude for the community’s support of these efforts. “From a philanthropic standpoint, as well as from a word of mouth and giving of time and effort,  we couldn’t do it without that.”

Community support is one of three things that’s important to a hospital’s success, Loeb said, and community support for PBMC is “second to none,” she said. 

The other two things are the provider team at the hospital and the health system. 

“We’ve been recruiting some really talented folks who are caring, compassionate individuals who are really good at what they do,” Loeb said. This includes a network of primary care providers, which Loeb said is something former PBMC President Andy Mitchell initiated long before Loeb joined the hospital, shs said. “And boy was that smart,” she said, because primary care is “the bedrock of any healthcare system.”

The support of the health system is important to community hospitals, she said, using the COVID crisis as an example. PBMC, thanks to the support of the Northwell Health system, didn’t have to deal with major shortages of supplies during the crisis. The health system also helps the hospital recruit the caliber of providers it has been able to attract, she said.

Loeb was the civic group’s featured speaker at its March monthly meeting, which took place via Zoom. The civic will return to in-person meetings next month