On July 1, Stony Brook Medicine announced the newest member of the Stony Brook University Hospital health care system — Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.

The 90-bed, acute care hospital has been affiliated with Stony Brook since 2006, and in 2015, talks began between the two hospitals to form a partnership. The Greenport campus will now be referred to as Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital.

“This really has been a win-win for both the hospital and for the people on the South Fork so let’s do it on the North Fork.”

— Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky

Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, senior vice president of health sciences and dean of the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said the partnership will allow SBELIH to work collaboratively with Stony Brook University Hospital and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, which joined the health care system in 2017.

While Stony Brook Medicine takes on the responsibility of operating the campus when it comes to things such as finances and quality responsibility, Kaushansky said the health care system doesn’t own the other hospitals but leases the buildings from the owners, and staff members are not state employees and continue with the same salaries and unions as before.

He said the partnership with Southampton has been a successful one, and the same is expected with SBELIH.

“This really has been a win-win for both the hospital and for the people on the South Fork so let’s do it on the North Fork,” Kaushansky said.

Stony Brook expects to help grow the Greenport hospital’s staff. Residents of the North Fork, which SBELIH serves along with Shelter Island, now can receive additional resources, particularly specialized outpatient services. Kaushansky said another plus is the use of a telehealth program, which allows doctors and patients on the North Fork direct access to Stony Brook Medicine specialists.

Stony Brook also has its eyes on Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, which Kaushansky said they are in talks with, to see if it makes sense to create a similar affiliation with the facility.

“We would anticipate that behavioral medicine will remain the core service at Eastern Long Island Hospital.”

— Dr. Margaret McGovern

“[It would be] another opportunity for us to grow our health care system, which will give us more bandwidth, give us more opportunity to keep patients as close to home as possible,” he said. “But when it comes time to need more advanced facilities, they have a seamless transition into Stony Brook Hospital.”

Dr. Margaret McGovern, vice president for health system clinical programs and strategy at Stony Brook Medicine, said the affiliation is another step on the path of the health care system expanding.

She and Kaushansky said the behavioral health programs of Eastern Long Island, which include medical-surgical services, critical care, psychiatry and drug and alcohol detoxification and rehabilitation services, are strong.

“We would anticipate that behavioral medicine will remain the core service at Eastern Long Island Hospital,” McGovern said.

Kaushansky added that with limited beds at the university hospital for behavioral health patients, it will be a benefit to be able to utilize SBELIH.

Paul Connor, chief administrative officer of SBELIH, said a psychiatric residency started at the Greenport campus July 1 as a part of Stony Brook Medicine’s academic mission. The CAO said training physicians and health care professionals is important for future staffing needs, as a high percentage of physicians are more apt to remain where they spent their residency.

“This was really an effort to preserve the mission of Eastern Long Island Hospital and ultimately to create more local health care options.”

— Paul Connor

Connor said the hospital opened in 1905 and was the first hospital in Suffolk County and the second one on Long Island.

“This was really an effort to preserve the mission of Eastern Long Island Hospital and ultimately to create more local health care options,” he said.

The hospital’s board will be part of a joint advisory committee with Stony Brook Medicine, he said, and will meet on a regular basis to discuss topics such as finances, planning and safety.

“They’re going to be in a position to influence the operation of the hospital as representatives from the community,” he said.

Connor said the ELIH Foundation will continue to exist and be independent of Stony Brook, which means any funds raised will go toward the SBELIH campus.

McGovern said while Stony Brook is a resource for other hospitals entering the system, providing services such as a burn unit,  psychiatric emergency department and kidney transplant program, many patients prefer to be treated close to home.

“A lot of care is appropriate in a community hospital setting, so that’s the model we’re going with and complementing it with a robust outpatient ambulatory platform,” she said.

In addition to its strong behavioral health programs, SBELIH is also one of two hospitals on Long Island providing skin cancer screenings to all inpatients through its Mollie Biggane Melanoma Foundation.