In its commitment to provide quality patient care to the residents of its surrounding communities, New Island Hospital in Bethpage recently announced the opening of its new 25-bed Telemetry Unit. The hospital serves neighborhood communities such as Farmingdale, Bethpage, Massapequa, Hicksville, Levittown and Plainview.

Equipped with state-of-the-art central monitoring, as well as portable units that are carried by the nursing staff, the unit was designed to aid the hospital in observing heart-beat rhythms of cardiac patients who are in need of constant monitoring. This monitoring will allow patients to be observed without restricting them to their beds. "The new telemetry unit helps to bring our ability to care for patients with heart disease to a significantly higher level," said Dr. Mansoor Jelveh, head of the cardiac care unit at New Island Hospital.

In addition to the new telemetry unit, New Island Hospital is currently undergoing the largest modernization project in its history, a $20 million expansion of two new buildings which are being built over a 57,000 square foot vicinity in front of the hospital's existing building.

The buildings will house an upgraded emergency room, a new ambulatory surgery unit, an endoscopy unit, (which is used to view the interior of hollow organs), a seven-suite operating room, a recovery room, and a central sterile department. In addition, there will be 36 new medical surgical beds placed into service once the construction program is complete.

Hospital executives said that the construction project is being financed with a $47.5 million bond from the New York State Dormitory Authority. Since the project cost the hospital $20 million, the remaining $27.5 million was used to convert the former Mid Island Hospital which had gone bankrupt into New Island Hospital. In addition, the hospital has invested an extra $700,000 from its own operating expenses to build an interim expansion program to provide the new services to patients prior to the completion of the construction.

According to New Island Hospital President and Chief Executive Paul E. Seale, the hospital did not want to wait for the completion of the new buildings to serve nearby communities. This 14,500 square foot interim expansion will allow New Island Hospital to provide high quality services to more patients in the meantime, while the construction of the two new building is being completed.

The interim is a first story addition to the west side of the hospital's existing building, which houses a new patient care unit. In addition, the hospital has added 24 more beds in the interim area and upgraded its capabilities by adding the new telemetry unit. The interim also includes adding 2,500 square feet of space near the emergency room with the use of custom-built trailers. Two operating rooms will be put into service soon and additional recovery space will be added as expansion construction continues.

Upon the completion of construction, there will be a new emergency department entrance constructed and a covered area will be created for those patients who are brought into the hospital by local volunteer fire department ambulance companies.

New Island Hospital, sponsored by the Winthrop South Nassau University Health System and the Catholic Health Services of Long Island, takes pride in being able to provide state-of-the-art care to its patients. For more information on New Island Hospital or its available programs, please call 520-2487.