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Protesters assemble outside Mather Hospital, condemn forest clearing

by TBR Staff - September 23, 2022

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By Aidan Johnson

Mather Hospital has recently come under fire after removing trees, including walking trails, to expand its northern parking lot among other improvements.

On Sunday, Sept. 18, a small group of protesters gathered near the hospital parking lot, most of whom were from the local environmental group, EcoLeague, founded by Holly Fils-Aime with friends about a year and a half ago.

Despite receiving objections from EcoLeague, the Audubon Society and multiple citizens, Mather Hospital went through with plans to clear its forest area. “They kind of just plowed ahead because I think they were pretty sure that the [village] planning board would approve it,” Fils-Aime said. [See The Port Times Record’s June 16 story, “Port Jeff planning board approves environmental review of Mather expansions.”]

Feeling that they had no other option, Fils-Aime, along with Ana Hozyainova, a recent candidate for village trustee, decided to sue the hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson. While Fils-Aime and Hozyainova hoped for a class-action lawsuit, they struggled to find others to join their cause, citing fear of consequences among residents.

EcoLeague is also concerned that the cutting down of the woods will harm local species of animals and that Mather Hospital’s construction of a parking lot will act as a “heat sink,” raising local temperatures.

Additionally, critics suggest adding impermeable surfaces may exacerbate the ongoing flooding issue in Port Jefferson.

“As we take away permeable land from all of the hills around the village, the water runoff just runs down into the village harbor,” said Paul Ryan, another member of the protest. “With the combination of heavy rainstorms, along with less permeable land and sea [level] rise, we’re going to end up with more flooding in the village.”

In response to this criticism, Mather Hospital and Northwell Health released the following statement to TBR News Media:

“Mather Hospital and Northwell Health have thoroughly evaluated potential impacts of the project upon environmental resources in coordination with the Village of Port Jefferson as part of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process. Regarding the removal of the trees, the hospital has committed $25,000 to the Village of Port Jefferson to plant trees within the village.

“With the completion of this project, our campus will foster an environment that represents the excellent care our physicians and team members provide. Especially in a pandemic era, we must ensure our infrastructure stays at the forefront of health care innovation and modernization. This expansion allows us to continue to serve our community at the top-tier level it deserves.”

The Village of Port Jefferson could not be reached for comment for this story.

— Photos by Aidan Johnson

Port Jefferson Village Cup Regatta sets sail Sept. 10

by Heidi Sutton - September 8, 2022

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It’s time once again to sail for a cure as the 13th annual Village Cup Regatta, a friendly competition between Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson, returns on Saturday, Sept. 10.

Mayor Margot Garant, pictured with Regatta Ambassador Ralph Macchio, Mather Hospital Executive Director Kevin McGeachy and Stephanie McGeachy, accepted last year’s Village Cup on behalf of the Village of Port Jefferson.

Presented by the Port Jefferson Yacht Club, the Regatta raises funds for Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program and the Lustgarten Foundation, which funds pancreatic cancer research. Last year’s Regatta raised more than $104,000 — a record sum — which was divided between Mather Hospital and the Lustgarten Foundation. The event has raised more than $750,000 over the past 12 years.

The Regatta consists of Yacht Club-skippered sailboats divided into two teams representing Mather Hospital and the Village of Port Jefferson. Employees from the Hospital and Village help crew the boats, which race in one of three classes based on boat size.

The festivities begin in Harborfront Park, 101 East Broadway in Port Jefferson Village, at 10 a.m, where you can purchase shirts, commemorative hats, nautical bags and mugs. The Memorial Parade of Boats begins at 11 a.m. at the Port Jefferson Village dock. All sailboats participating in the Regatta will pass by the park dressed in banners and nautical flags on their way out to the Long Island Sound for the race which begins at 1 p.m.

Actor, director and local resident Ralph Macchio will once again serve as Village Cup Regatta Celebrity Ambassador for the event. Macchio has helped to publicize the important work of the two programs funded by the Regatta for the last ten years. Macchio’s wife, Phyllis, is a nurse practitioner in Mather’s Palliative Medicine Program.

Following the Regatta, a celebratory Skipper’s Reception and presentation of the Village Cup will take place at 3:30 p.m. in a restored 1917 shipyard building that today serves as the Port Jefferson Village Center.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the reception ($50 per person includes food, wine, beer and raffles), please visit www.portjeffersonyachtclub.com or www.facebook.com/villagecupregatta. For further questions, call 631-512-1068.

Mather Hospital launches Certified Nursing Assistant training and employment program

by Press Release - September 5, 2022

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Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson has announced a new free training program for Certified Nurse Assistants (CNA) that will pay students during their training and guarantee them a position at the hospital upon successful completion of the course and New York State certification exam.

“Today’s healthcare workforce shortage is not just a regional or statewide issue; it is a global concern that presents challenges for patient care delivery. There is a significant shortage of ancillary support staff such as CNAs, who are needed to assist our professional healthcare team in delivering the care that we are committed to providing to our community residents,” said Mather Hospital CNO/ VP for Nursing Marie Mulligan, PhD, RN.

“Individuals who successfully complete the four-week program and pass the New York State CNA exam will be offered entry level healthcare jobs. Participants who successfully complete the Certified Nursing Assistant program will have employment and benefits that will open opportunities for them to advance in their healthcare careers,” she said.

John R. Balcuk, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, Assistant Director of Nursing Talent, Nursing Recruitment and Retention, said the program will follow the American Red Cross training program, but instead of being an online course, students will learn in-person at the hospital. The trainees will be paid as Safety Care Associates – a new position at the hospital – and will meet their required 30 hours of clinical experience with patients in the hospital’s Transitional Care Unit.

The program, named the Mather Assistant Nurse Institute, will utilize supplemental curriculum designed by the American Red Cross that is used nationwide to train CNA’s. Trainees will learn from Mather Hospital’s clinical nurse educators who are trained American Red Cross CNA program instructors.

The program is scheduled to begin in November. Anyone interested should contact Balcuk at 631-473-1320, ext. 5636, or [email protected]

Hannun steps down as Stony Brook Cancer Center director

by Daniel Dunaief - August 31, 2022

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DrHannunLab-2w — Yusuf Hannun is constantly working to improve his team of dedicated researchers with the hopes of curing complicated diseases. File photo

Stony Brook University’s Dr. Yusuf Hannun, an internationally recognized scientist and a leader at the school for a decade, is stepping down as head of the Stony Brook Cancer Center, Dr. Hal Paz, chief executive officer of Stony Brook Medicine announced in an email.

In the email addressed to SBM leaders, Paz thanked Hannun for his leadership, recognizing his contributions to cancer research and to the Stony Brook Cancer Center.

Paz suggested that Hannun would continue to serve as director until the university, which is conducting a national search, finds someone to assume that responsibility.

SBM officials maintained in a statement that the “mission remains the same: to provide our patients with optimal treatment and care.”

Stony Brook is seeking a candidate with “exceptional leadership skills, an illustrious career in cancer research, and who is at the forefront of cancer medicine,” SBM officials added.

Paz shared his gratitude to Hannun for his “dedication to our mission and for shepherding [the cancer center] on the first leg of its journey to attaining [National Cancer Institute] status,” he wrote in his email.

Stony Brook will continue to seek NCI designation. The National Cancer Institute recognizes centers that “meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer,” according to the NCI web site.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has such a designation.

Paz indicated in the email that Hannun, who has earned numerous accolades and has blazed a trail in the field of sphingolipids, inflammation and cancer therapeutics, would remain as a part of the Stony Brook Medicine faculty.

Hannun previously worked at the Medical University of South Carolina, serving as senior associate dean and distinguished university professor of Biomedical Research and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for 14 years.

TBR News Media honored the work of Hannun and his late wife, Lina Obeid, in a People of the Year issue in 2015.

Tony Futerman, the Joseph Meyerhoff professor and chair of biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, said Hannun “pushed the field into the modern age” and suggested he had been “innovative for 30 years.”

Hannun recruited numerous faculty to Stony Brook since his arrival, many of whom shared their appreciation for the opportunity to work with and for the well-regarded scientist.

Earlier this year, Mehdi Damaghi, assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, said he chose Stony Brook because of the depth of cancer sciences, citing the work of Hannun, Laufer Center Director Ken Dill and Pathology Department Chair Ken Shroyer.

Paz wrote that Hannun has been “instrumental in building the infrastructure to support the growth of the [cancer center], and his impact will be felt for years to come.”

Hannun holds numerous National Institutes of Health grants and has an H index of 148, which is “an exceptional metric that evaluates the cumulative impact of an author’s scholarly output and performance.”

An H index measures how much other scientists cite a researcher’s work.

“We are grateful that Dr. Hannun will remain in his leadership role as we search for a successor,” SBM officials added.

SBU Hospital receives prestigious ACC Chest Pain Center with Primary PCI and Resuscitation accreditation

by Press Release - August 29, 2022

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The American College of Cardiology has recognized Stony Brook University Hospital as the only hospital on Long Island to have achieved the prestigious Chest Pain Center with Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention & Resuscitation designation in 2022. The designation recognizes the high-level of staff expertise and exceptional integration of the Stony Brook Cardiology Program, Emergency Medical Services and Cardiovascular Surgery Program. The accreditation also recognizes Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to treating patients with chest pain. Stony Brook University Hospital is the only facility on Long Island to have received this accreditation during back-to-back cycles.

“Our ACC designation affirms that Stony Brook provides the most advanced and timely evidence-based heart attack or cardiac arrest care to the patients in our community,” saysRobert T. Pyo, MD, Director, Interventional Cardiology; Medical Director, Structural Heart Program and Associate Professor, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “This can only be achieved through the exceptional skill of our cardiac and emergency services teams in offering the best quality emergency cardiac care available anywhere.”

The Chest Pain Center with Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention & Resuscitation designation means that Stony Brook University Hospital is optimally equipped, trained and staffed to care for patients during or after a heart attack or during a sudden cardiac arrest (when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating). Patients arriving at Stony Brook University Hospital’s ER with symptoms of a cardiac emergency are treated according to quality-of-care measures that are proven to achieve better patient outcomes.

Dr. William Lawson, Vice Chair, Department of Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, noted that “Using Stony Brook’s “Code H” protocol, the Stony Brook Heart Institute has reduced the amount of time between a heart attack patient coming into the hospital to the opening and clearing of the blocked arteries with a stent or balloon-tipped catheter (angioplasty) to an average of just 54 minutes. This is a spectacular achievement, being over thirty minutes sooner than the 90 minutes or less specified in American Heart Association guidelines.”

“If you’re having a heart attack, every second counts,” says Julie Mangum, RN, Stony Brook Heart Institute’s Chest Pain Coordinator. “The key is to get treated as quickly as possible so there is less chance of heart muscle damage. Few hospitals can offer the diagnostic testing and the complete array of on-site interventional options that are available at Stony Brook.” In addition, for patients suffering from a cardiac arrest, Stony Brook University Hospital provides a robust hypothermia program that lowers a patient’s body temperature allowing for the best possible chance of meaningful recovery.

Hospitals that have earned ACC Chest Pain Center with Primary PCI and Resuscitation Accreditation have proven exceptional competency in treating patients with heart attack symptoms and have primary PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) available 24/7 every day of the year. In addition, Stony Brook maintains a “No Diversion Policy” for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients which means that at no time are ambulances diverted away from our emergency department.

“By earning this distinguished chest pain center accreditation at Stony Brook, we’re again demonstrating to Long Island that we provide the highest level of cardiac care, even in the most complex cases,” noted Hal Skopicki, MD, PhD, Co-Director, Stony Brook Heart Institute and the Ambassador Charles A. Gargano Chair of Cardiology at Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. “When having a heart attack, It is crucial to immediately seek care from the closest and most skilled facility available. For our community, I’m proud to say, that’s Stony Brook University Hospital.”

For more information about what it means for Stony Brook Heart Institute to be the region’s only accredited Chest Pain Center, visit this link.

About Stony Brook University Heart Institute:

Stony Brook University Heart Institute is located within Stony Brook University Hospital as part of Long Island’s premier university-based medical center. The Heart Institute offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary program for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. The staff includes full-time and community-based, board-certified cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, as well as specially trained anesthesiologists, nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, surgical technologists, perfusionists, and other support staff. Their combined expertise provides state-of-the-art interventional and surgical capabilities in 24-hour cardiac catheterization labs and surgical suites. And while the Heart Institute’s clinical staff offers the latest advances in medicine, its physician-scientists are also actively enhancing knowledge of the heart and blood vessels through basic biomedical studies and clinical research. To learn more, visit www.heart.stonybrookmedicine.edu.

About the American College of Cardiology:

The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care, and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.

Mather Hospital’s Critical Care team earns national award for excellence

by Press Release - August 27, 2022

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The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has awarded a gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence to Mather Hospital’s Critical Care team in Port Jefferson.

The Beacon Award for Excellence — a significant milestone on the path to exceptional patient care and healthy work environments — recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards. Units that achieve this three-year, three-level award with gold, silver or bronze designations meet national criteria consistent with the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award.

“I want to extend my congratulations to Mather Hospital’s Critical Care team on earning a gold-level Beacon Award for Excellence from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses,” said Mather Hospital CNO/VP for Nursing Marie Mulligan, PhD, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC. “This designation is the highest level of recognition that Critical Care services can achieve for this award.”

“Achieving the gold level AACN Beacon Award for Excellence is a tremendous honor and validates our nursing team’s efforts for providing high quality care and optimal patient outcomes,” said Laura O’Brien RN MSN CRN, NE-BC, Nursing Director of Critical Care at Mather Hospital.

AACN President Beth Wathen, MSN, APRN, CCRN-K, applauded the commitment of the Critical Care caregivers at Mather Hospital for working together to meet and exceed the high standards set forth by the Beacon Award for Excellence. “The Beacon Award for Excellence is a testament to a team’s commitment to providing safe, patient-centered and evidence-based care to patients and families. Creating healthy and supportive work environments empowers nurses and other team members to make their optimal contribution,” Wathen said.

Ronald McDonald House opens Family Room for NICU families at Stony Brook Hospital

by Press Release - August 12, 2022

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Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) NY Metro officially opened its newest Family Room at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Stony Brook Hospital on Aug. 4. The space will serve as a respite area for parents and families caring for a newborn in the NICU receiving life-saving treatment.

The new family room was designed and decorated mostly with donated goods and services and is equipped with a kitchen area, laundry facility and shower, all to keep families close to their ill children in the hospital. Coffee and snacks are also made available free of charge and local restaurants regularly donate warm meals to serve to families.

“This has been a labor of love,” said Matt Campo, CEO of RMHC NY Metro. “We have partnered with Stony Brook over the last two years to see this come to fruition. Families have been stopping in, expressing their gratitude, and using the facilities that we built for them. It’s providing so much comfort and has given us a glimpse of what this room will mean to them.”

The room is the second at Stony Brook Hospital. Ronald McDonald House opened a family room in the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital before the COVID pandemic. Both rooms are staffed entirely by volunteers from around Long Island.

“Serving families is at the heart of what we do,” said Dr. Hal Paz, Executive Vice President of Health Sciences, CEO of Stony Brook University Medicine. “Having the opportunity to provide a quiet space for families is an essential part of providing quality care for all of our patients. Partnerships like these are fundamental to the care that our hospital system provides, allowing us to meet the needs of our patients and their families more fully.

More photos of the Ronald McDonald NICU Respite Lounge at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital can be found here.

Stony Brook Medicine’s surgical team reduces recovery time, incisions with robot

by Daniel Dunaief - August 12, 2022

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By Daniel Dunaief

When Jacqueline Olsen learned the day before her birthday last November that she needed surgery for lung cancer, she felt anxious about a procedure she knew could be painful and could involve a lengthy recovery.

“It’s not only my birthday, it’s Thanksgiving,” said Olsen, who is a resident of St. James and is an agent for personal insurance such as home, auto and umbrella insurance. “Everybody was real tense. It was not a pleasant holiday.”

Olsen’s father, William Leonard, and father-in-law, James Olsen, had died of lung cancer after having open chest surgeries. The pain of what her father went through 48 years ago and father-in-law over 20 years ago was fresh in her mind as she readied herself for her own procedure.

Speaking with doctors at Stony Brook University Hospital, Olsen heard about newer, better options.

Dr. Ankit Dhamija, Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Director of Thoracic Robotic Surgery at Stony Brook Medicine, suggested to Olsen that she was a candidate for a robot-assist surgery called the da Vinci Surgical System.

Olsen and her family gathered considerable information about the procedure.

“I did some research on it and it said it would be a faster recovery and I would be up and back to my normal self pretty soon afterward,” said Olsen. “It seemed like a less invasive surgery.”

The robotic surgery does not involve turning over the procedure to a machine, Dr. Dhamija explained.

Instead, the process involves making considerably smaller incisions and guiding the robot through the body to remove the cancerous tissue.

“The robot is a machine that is an extension of our hands,” said Dr. Dhamija, who has performed about 500 such procedures with the help of a robot, including around 70 since he arrived at Stony Brook.

The robotic system allows surgeons like Dr. Dhamija and Dr. Henry Tannous, Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Chief of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Division at Stony Brook Medicine, among others, to sit in the operating room with the patient while the robot enters through an incision. The robot provides a three dimensional view of the inside of the body, magnifying cells by ten times.

The robot assist can also improve the ability of surgeons to perform fine operations.

The system “does have a machine algorithm associated with it that actually is known to reduce tremors in surgeons that have tremors,” said Dr. Dhamija. “Someone that may not be able to do a certain portion of the operation due to their technical limitations can subsequently do it with the robot.”

In the procedure, the surgeon can see and maneuver through the body effectively, searching for the specific cells to remove.

An interventional radiologist can inject a dye which under CT guidance allows the surgeon to “see where the lesion is and to verify that you have adequate margins” or the border between cancerous and non-cancerous cells, Dr. Dhamija said. “Having the dye in there to identify [the cancer] is helpful,” he added.

By using the robot instead of creating a large incision, doctors can reduce the time patients spend in a hospital down to as little as one to three days from the four to eight days after an open chest lobectomy.

“There’s so much to be said about someone [recovering] in their own home,” said Dr. Dhamija. They “get to sleep properly, their bowel habits are more normal, and they get to reengage in their daily life functions sooner. I’m a big proponent of a patient taking charge of their own postoperative care.”

Indeed, Stony Brook doctors have become so confident and comfortable with the robot assist that it has become the main platform for thoracic oncology patients at Stony Brook Medicine, explained Dr. Tannous. Tannous estimates that 90 percent of the lobectomies will be performed robotically in 2022, up from 10 to 20 percent in 2021.

In an email, Dr. Tannous wrote that other specialties that have adopted the robotic platform include gynecology, urology, colorectal, bariatrics, and general surgery.

Stony Brook is also expanding robotic surgery to include cardiac procedures in 2023.

Dr. Tannous said robotic procedures that cut down on recovery time means less risk of hospital-acquired infections, lower extremities blood clots, and numerous other benefits.

Some day, theoretically, the robot may enable remote procedures, with surgeons operating the robot with the help of an on-site local medical team. That could be helpful for astronauts who develop a medical problem far from home where they need emergency surgery.

An important caveat with that, Dr. Dhamija said, is that the staff on site would need to be able to complete a procedure if an open chest surgery became necessary.

Olsen, who was out of the hospital less than 24 hours after she had surgery in late May, has become a fan of the technology and of the team at Stony Brook.

Olsen, who has three scars on her back and two on her side, felt pain for about a week. As she recovered, she never felt the need to fill a prescription for a stronger painkiller, choosing to treat the pain with Motrin. She plans to continue to take blood tests every three months and to get CAT scans every six months.

Olsen was thrilled with the quality of care she received and is pleased she can look forward to sharing quality summer time during the family’s annual beach trip. “It’s heaven to me,” she said, where she can “spoil my grandchildren.

As for a perspective on her surgery, she said the difference between 20 years ago and now is “unbelievable. It was such an awful experience” for her father and father in law. “This was a million times better.”

Mather Hospital Emergency Department earns national award for exceptional care

by Press Release - August 10, 2022

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default — Photo courtesy of Mather Hospital

Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson was one of 29 hospitals nationwide to receive the Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award in July for demonstrating exceptional and innovative performance in leadership, practice, education, advocacy, and research.

“The ENA Lantern Award is a display of all the hard work and innovation that the Emergency Department nurses and staff carry out each and every day,” said Christine Carbone MBA, BSN, RN, Director of Nursing for Mather’s Emergency Department which sees about 38-40,000 patient visits a year. “It is a true testament to the commitment of quality care and compassion that our staff provides to our community and patients.”

The award showcases an emergency department’s accomplishments in incorporating evidence-based practice and innovation into emergency care and serves as a visible symbol of its commitment to quality, safety, and a healthy work environment.

In addition, Northwell Health presented Mather Hospital’s Emergency Department with a North Star 90 Hospital Award for achieving the 90th percentile nationally in patient experience in 2021 based on a national patient satisfaction survey.

In 2019 the Emergency Department also received a Geriatric Emergency Department Accreditation from the American College of Emergency Physicians. The three-year accreditation recognizes that the Emergency Department is focused on the highest standards of care for our community’s older adults.

And The Joint Commission gave Mather its Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Heart/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check Mark for Advanced Primary Stroke Care Center certification, which recognizes its commitment to fostering continuous quality improvement in patient safety and quality of care. The hospital has been a Stroke Center since 2005.

For more information on this year’s Lantern Award recipients, visit the Emergency Nurses Association website.

St. Catherine of Siena Hospital hosts community blood drive Aug. 8 and 9

by Press Release - August 6, 2022

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St. Catherine of Siena Hospital, 50 Route 25A, Smithtown hosts a community blood drive by the New York Blood Center in St. Vincent’s and St. Raphael’s Conference Room on Monday, Aug. 8 and Tuesday, Aug. 9 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. All presenting blood donors will receive a voucher to redeem a free pint of beer, cider, wine, or soft drink from a participating brewery or pub. Reservations preferred but walk-ins welcomed. Call 800-933-2566 or visit www.nybc.org to register.

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