$5 million gift advances PBMC’s plan for neurosciences center in Riverhead

Peconic Bay Medical Center will build a neurosciences center to increase care options for stroke patients in eastern Suffolk, the Riverhead hospital announced last week.

The expansion will allow the hospital to perform a cerebral mechanical thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure for people suffering from a stroke and other neurological issues due to obstructed blood flow to the brain, and remove the need for some stroke victims to be transferred to hospitals further west, the hospital said in a press release Thursday. 

“Peconic Bay Medical Center’s mission is to make advanced, life-saving medical care available and accessible to all in Eastern Suffolk County, and this new neuroscience center is a centerpiece of that effort,” the hospital’s director, Amy Loeb, said in a statement.

Northwell Health is assembling a team of “highly skilled interventional neurologists, neurosurgeons, and dedicated healthcare professionals” to staff the center, the hospital said.

The center will be named after Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch of Southampton, who made a $5 million gift to the hospital. Other donors contributed more than $1.7 million during the hospital’s annual gala to support the new center, the hospital said. 

“We are deeply grateful to Bill and Ruth Ann Harnisch for their incredible generosity. This donation will have a profound impact on our ability to provide high-quality neurological and especially stroke care to our community,” Dr. Richard Jung, interventional neurologist and director of stroke at PBMC, said in a statement.

The announcement of the neurosciences center is the latest in a long line of changes to the hospital. The hospital earlier this year completed an expanded emergency room and trauma center. It is also undergoing renovations to a hospital wing, which previously housed a skilled nursing facility, into a new center for women and infants.