The Syosset Chamber of Commerce's monthly meeting was held on March 13 and started with announcements by chamber president Jim Tinnelly. The meeting also featured a member spotlight, which is a new addition to the chamber meetings.

Each month, a different member will have five minutes to talk about their business. This month was Frank and Marilyn Urso from Village Realty. They are celebrating their 10th year in business and have been involved with the chamber since its inception approximately five years ago. Please call 921-0220 or visit www.li-villagerealty.com for more information or to schedule an appointment.

This month's guest speaker was Dr. Joseph Savasta, director of Emergency Services at North Shore University Hospital at Syosset. He received his undergraduate degree at Georgetown University and attended medical school at the University of Brussels in Belgium. After holding a position in Emergency Medicine at Booth Memorial Hospital (a Level 1 Trauma Center), Dr. Savasta was appointed medical director of EMT training at La Guardia Community College. Since joining North Shore at Syosset in 2001, he has received the Physician of Excellence Award from the Regional Emergency Medical Services Council.

Dr. Savasta gave a brief history of North Shore University Hospital at Syosset. He said Syosset General Hospital closed in 1980 and in 1984 Syosset Community Hospital was opened by HIP of Greater New York. The facility accommodated only HIP patients and didn't cater to the community at all, according to Dr. Savasta. HIP closed the center due to financial problems.

In 1996, North Shore Health System acquired the facility and they too experienced fiscal problems. When they first opened, NSUH decided to only see short-term surgical patients at the Syosset location and, according to Dr. Savasta, this didn't work. Now the Syosset location is a complete hospital.

"Some people still think that we are only a walk-in place and that is not true," said Dr. Savasta. "We can now accommodate all patients and the emergency room is open 24 hours a day, seven days week."

Dr. Savasta said that there were many challenges faced when the facility first opened. The reputation at NSUH at Syosset was that it was slow and inefficient. "There were threats that we would close, downsize or not be open 24/7," said Dr. Savasta. "We didn't want any of that. We wanted to provide good care and staff nice people."

According to Dr. Savasta, many doctors didn't have a great allegiance to the hospital and, little by little, that turned around. Now all emergency physicians are full-time employees and all board certified. There are also mandatory educational activities for the staff and quality improvement activities, which act as a system of checks and balances.

The nursing staff is also certified and must attend educational sessions and seminars. "The nurses are very involved in the department," said Dr. Savasta. "Our department works well because we are all involved.

Dr. Savasta discussed many ways that the hospital gets involved with the community such as community outreach wellness programs that are held throughout the year. Some of these free programs include prostate screening, blood pressure screening, flu and pneumonia vaccinations, skin cancer screenings and heart and health day, which includes cholesterol and glucose testing.

There are also seminars available focusing on women's health, senior's health and community health issues. The hospital also sponsors a Teddy Bear Clinic at the Syosset-Woodbury Community Park and this helps take away the fear that some kids have about doctors and hospitals. The kids each have a teddy bear that has an ailment and the doctors patch up the bear and show the kids how painless the process can be. Please call the hospital at 496-6400 for dates and times of these and other programs.

Dr. Savasta has been working on ways to improve the emergency room at the hospital and the numbers show that he has made a lot of improvements. The two statistics that still alarm him are the number of people who leave without being seen and the people who leave against medical advice. In 2002, 14,294 patients entered the emergency room, 2,335 were admitted, 337 left against medical advice and 262 left without being seen or examined. Dr. Savasta knows that the time people wait in the emergency room plays a large part in people leaving without being seen. The hospital recently started the Ambassador Program to help alleviate that problem.

The program askes for volunteers to work in the emergency room from 3 - 9 p.m., which are the busiest hours in the emergency room, to act as a liaison between patients and hospital staff. No medical experience is necessary. Volunteers will speak to a nurse and then inform patients about how much longer it will take before they are seen and to remind them that they have not been forgotten.

Public Access Defibrillators were also a topic of discussion at the meeting. Dr. Savasta suggested that all businesses purchase these defibrillators. "Heart disease is the number one cause of death," said Dr. Savasta. "This machine saves lives." The defibrillator costs approximately $2,000 and staff needs to be trained to use the machine. Please call the hospital for more information on these machines.

The Syosset Chamber of Commerce meets on the second Thursday of each month at 7:30 a.m. for networking and 8 a.m. for the regular meetings. The meetings are held at the Casey Center at St. Mary's Children and Family Services, 525 Convent Road in Syosset. For more information, contact Jim Tinnelly at 496-4622.