NYU Langone deepens Suffolk footprint with $650 million hospital expansion in E. Patchogue

NYU Langone Health’s $650 million expansion of its East Patchogue hospital, approved unanimously by the Brookhaven Town Board Thursday, is the latest marker in a two-decade reshaping of hospital care on Long Island’s East End and across Suffolk County.

The approval clears the way for a 270,000-square-foot, seven-story inpatient pavilion at NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk, the former Long Island Community Hospital. The project will add 52 beds to the hospital’s total licensed capacity while creating space for 144 beds in the new pavilion, allowing the hospital to convert more rooms to single-bed patient rooms and accommodate updated medical technology, VHB Engineering’s Angelo Laino told the board.

The new pavilion will be connected to the southern portion of the existing hospital, Laino said. The hospital’s main entrance will be relocated to the south side of the new pavilion, accessed at Sills Road. The existing drop-off driveway along Hospital Road will be removed, Laino said. 

The project will add 142 parking spaces on the site, in addition to 399 spaces approved by the board in December, increasing the number of active parking spaces to 1,200 when the project is complete, exceeding town code requirements, he said.

Two decades of reshaping health care across the region

For Riverhead and the East End, the project is more than a neighboring town’s land-use approval. It reflects NYU Langone’s rapid move into Suffolk County after its 2021 affiliation agreement with Long Island Community Hospital, a deal that brought the Manhattan-based system into a hospital market dominated by Stony Brook Medicine, Northwell Health and Catholic Health.

It also adds another chapter to a hospital consolidation story that began in earnest after the state’s Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, better known as the Berger Commission, issued its final report in 2006. The commission recommended that Peconic Bay Medical Center, Eastern Long Island Hospital and Southampton Hospital come under a single governance structure affiliated with Stony Brook University Hospital, and that Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center, later renamed Long Island Community Hospital, explore becoming part of that Stony Brook-led entity.

That is not how the East End hospital map ultimately developed. Southampton Hospital and Eastern Long Island Hospital became part of Stony Brook Medicine, while Peconic Bay Medical Center merged with Northwell Health. Long Island Community Hospital remained independent until it affiliated with NYU Langone in 2021 and formally joined the system in 2025.

Since announcing its affiliation with Long Island Community Hospital in 2021, NYU Langone has added at least 16 outpatient or ambulatory practices and locations in Suffolk County, including new sites in Riverhead, Patchogue, Commack and Westhampton Beach. Its March opening of NYU Langone Radiology-Ambulatory Care Riverhead placed a new 25,000-square-foot imaging and specialty-care facility on the North Fork’s doorstep.

The East Patchogue hospital expansion approved Thursday is NYU Langone’s largest Suffolk County move yet, but it already has plans in the works for an even bigger expansion into Suffolk. In June, NYU Langone Health announced plans to build a multi-billion-dollar academic medical center in Melville, near the Nassau-Suffolk border. At the time of the announcement, the health system cited its “comprehensive strategy to expand access to the highest-quality care across Long Island, 

The Melville site will also include the tuition-free NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, space to conduct leading scientific research and a “significant” ambulatory care footprint around the new campus, NYU Langone said in a press release announcing its plans for Melville. 

Panico: ‘The community deserves this’

NYU Langone’s expanded hospital in East Patchogue is “another step in the right direction, another investment in Suffolk County, Brookhaven Town, East Patchogue, and the surrounding areas,” State Senator Dean Murray told the Brookhaven Town Board Thursday before its vote.

Murray said NYU Langone has invested in health services and community programs since taking over the former Long Island Community Hospital. 

“In addition to the investment of time into the community, NYU Langone Health has also invested millions in bringing state-of-the-art health services to the area,” Murray said. 

“From robotic surgery to another state-of-the-art facility on Main Street in Patchogue, NYU Langone Health has proven time and again that they want to invest in our community and be long-term partners, delivering top-notch health care services,” he said. 

In addition to hundreds of construction jobs, this project will also result in more health care jobs being created, and most importantly, more health care services being provided for our community,“ Murray said.

Laborers Local 66 business manager Vinnie Alu, an East Patchogue resident, and Building and Construction Trades Council president Matthew Aracich both spoke in support of the application, citing new opportunities for construction workers locally. 

No one spoke in opposition.

Brookhaven Town Council members also voiced support before voting.

Supervisor Daniel Panico said he was born at the hospital in 1978, when it was Brookhaven Hospital, and said NYU Langone’s investment would benefit East Patchogue and the surrounding area.

“The community deserves this, the community needs it,” Panico said. “The infusion of capital, and human capital as well, in this facility is going to serve the residents of Brookhaven, namely the area of East Patchogue and the surrounding area, really quite well.”

Council Member Michael Loguercio, who said he rides with the Ridge Fire Department rescue squad, said the expansion would help surrounding communities get timely access to critical care.