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Stony Brook Hospital Head Discusses Initiatives to Curb Infections

by David Luces - January 30, 2020

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In a Q&A with TBR News Media, Carol Gomes, interim chief executive officer at Stony Brook University Hospital, discusses a variety of topics including patient safety, quality control and curbing infections. Here is what she had to say.

1. Being the interim chief executive officer at the hospital, how important is patient safety and quality control to the day-to-day operations?

Stony Brook Medicine physicians and staff are committed to providing high-quality, safe patient care.

SBU Hospital CEO Carol Gomes discusses what the hospital is doing to reduce infection potential. Photo from SBU Hospital

Quality and patient safety is priority number one, and we focus on safe patient care every day. The Stony Brook Medicine team convenes a safety huddle that is part of the day-to-day operations in every area, which includes critical leaders from all over the hospital.

We start the day with approximately 35 care team members from nursing leadership, physician leadership and operational leadership who report on important safety or quality opportunities. Our huddles are highly structured meetings that allow the hospital to focus on process changes with direct follow-up. This drives accountability to help ensure that adequate safety measures are in place for our patients at all times.

2. Interim SBU President Michael Bernstein mentioned to us that you were making an effort to curb infections at the hospital among other things. Could you discuss some of the initiatives you’ve been implementing to improve in that area?

Stony Brook University Hospital has three primary strategic quality priorities — clinical outcomes, patient safety and the patient experience.

Proactively, Stony Brook works to provide safe and effective care to every patient via our patient safety work groups. These groups analyze processes, review relevant data and implement process changes to enhance patient safety and prevent patient harm.

The vast majority of projects and improvement efforts are aimed at reducing hospital associated infections. There are teams that implement best practices for CLABSI, or central line associated bloodstream infections; hand hygiene; CAUTI, or catheter-associated urinary tract infections; C. diff, or Clostridium difficile infections; SSI, or surgical site infections; and sepsis.

Working groups incorporate real-time data to implement best practices to ensure hospital units continue to drive improvement efforts in achieving patient safety goals.

3. In general could you talk about the threat of infections to patients at hospitals? Most people view hospitals as a place of recovery and necessarily don’t think of other germs, sick people around them. Can you speak on that and the challenges you and others face?

As a matter of standard practice, the hospital adheres to rigorous infection control guidelines every day to ensure a clean environment for patients, staff and visitors. These practices are especially important during the flu season.

Being within the close quarters of a hospital, there is an increased incidence of transmission for infections. Many patients have recent surgical wounds, IVs and other catheters placing them at higher risk of infection. These risks may be enhanced by the acquisition of an infection from a visitor.

Family members and other visitors who suspect they may have the flu or other viruses are advised to not visit the hospital.

To lessen the spread of the flu virus, hand hygiene and attention to reducing the effects of droplets from respiratory illnesses such as the flu can enhance patient safety.

Hand washing prevents infection. It is one of the most important actions each of us can implement before and after every encounter with a patient.

The goal is to minimize that transmission while the patient is in the hospital.

4. Other practices/guidelines at the hospital?

The flu virus most commonly spreads from an infected person to others. It’s important to stay home while you’re sick, not visit people in the hospital and to limit close contact with others.

Visitors should wash their hands before entering a patient room and after seeing a patient, whether or not there is patient contact.

As added protection, patients who have been identified as having infections are isolated appropriately from other patients in order to prevent accidental spread.

Therefore, if a patient has the flu or flulike symptoms, the hospital will place them in respiratory isolation. Likewise, a patient with measles or chicken pox is kept in appropriate isolation.

Visitors may be asked to wear masks on certain units.

5. How do patient safety grades affect how the hospital looks to improve
its quality?

Stony Brook University Hospital supports the public availability of quality and safety information about hospitals. We are constantly looking for ways to improve and ensure the highest quality of care.

There is a wide variation of quality reports with different methodologies and results.

Clinical outcomes define our success as a hospital. Better clinical outcomes means we’re taking better care of our patients. Stony Brook Medicine initiated a major initiative to improve clinical outcomes. We have multidisciplinary groups improving outcomes in the following areas:

• Increasing our time educating patients prior to their discharge in order to prevent hospital readmissions.

• Improving the care of our patients receiving surgery to reduce postoperative complications.

• Enhancing the diagnosis and care of patients with diabetes.

• Improving the speed of diagnosis and treatment of sepsis.

In short, great effort is expended in identifying opportunities for improvement with a detailed and focused approach on enhancing patient outcomes.

Stony Brook Children’s Hospital set to open in November

by Rita J. Egan - October 17, 2019

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191017_CH Ribbon Cutting_001C_APPROVED — Elected officials and Stony Brook Medicine faculty and staff at the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 17. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Stepping into the main lobby of the new Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, which is slated to open for patient care Nov. 17, it’s apparent that young patients will come first. The downstairs lobby is decorated in soothing tones with a fun nautical theme and one wall features a live feed of fish swimming at the Long Island Aquarium.

Children sit by the live feed from the Long Island Aquarium in the downstairs lobby of Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

In anticipation of the Nov. 17 opening, Stony Brook Medicine held a ribbon-cutting at the site with staff and elected officials in attendance Oct. 17. According to Stony Brook Medicine, the 71,500-square-foot, 114-bed hospital will be the only children’s hospital with single-patient rooms on Long Island.

“We’re really trying to get everything into a child-friendly environment, and this is sort of like the icing on the cake to have our building and to get the pediatric inpatients out from the 11th floor of what is predominantly an adult hospital into this proper space that was designed for kids and their families,” said Dr. Margaret McGovern, professor of pediatrics and physician-in-chief at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, during a tour and interview two days before the ribbon-cutting.

With a full-service health care program that includes a Level 1 pediatric trauma center, neonatal intensive care unit and more, McGovern said Stony Brook Medicine treats an array of pediatric conditions.

“In general the acuity is high,” she said. “These are kids who really need to be in the hospital. It’s everything from an infection to a broken bone.”

McGovern said the single-bed rooms will provide infection control, comfort, privacy and security. The children’s hospital will be located on floors 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the new Medical and Research Translation building, also known as MART, which combined with using wristbands with devices, will provide extra security for children.

Each patient’s room will have a pull-out sofa for parents to sleep, refrigerator, safe and workspaces for both families and hospital staff. Each room also has a private bathroom with a shower that is wheelchair accessible.

Children in one of the play areas in Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Dr. Carolyn Milana, interim Chair in the Department of Pediatrics, said that the single-patient rooms will allow medical staff to easily have private conversations with families, as the current rooms have two patients each and can only be divided with a curtain. She said at times medical teams have to step out of a room to have a conversation with parents.

“This will allow the whole team to come in and really have a conversation with the family in private, and it’s quieter,” Milana said.

The children will also have a remote to control the lighting over artwork hung on the walls, and medical teams will be able to pull up records and patient care educational materials right up on the room’s television screen.

Maureen Cole, RN, associate director of nursing, Children’s Hospital and Women’s Services, said that the rooms were designed after receiving feedback from families on an advisory council.

“They were very instrumental in some of the additions that we have made, and then the children gave a lot of feedback, too, because we have a youth advisory council who have been touring the building,” she said.

Cole said children even offered advice on how they should be spoken to and who should be in the room when conversations occur about their care.

In addition to the private rooms, McGovern said the hospital was designed for respite with play spaces and rooms and even a teen lounge. The building will also have an adolescent unit on a separate floor from younger children and a classroom with Wi-Fi.

The Ronald McDonald House, a nonprofit which provides support to improve the health of children, has a family room in the hospital so parents can sit and relax and even do work. A washer, dryer and shower across from the room is also available to families.

The building includes an elevator for patients being transported for procedures that is separate from visitors. The special procedure unit will provide services such as sedated MRIs, pediatric endoscopies and bone marrow procedures for both in- and outpatients.

McGovern said nearly 10 years ago Stony Brook Medicine declared themselves a children’s hospital because they recognized the need to expand children’s health care programs in Suffolk County.

“There are about 450,000 kids in Suffolk County,” she said. “That is absolutely a population that can support a children’s hospital. So we’ve been building the number of pediatric providers who are on our full-time faculty — now there’s almost 180 of them, 30 different pediatric specialties.”

McGovern said there are also more than 250 nurses on staff and Child Life Services employees and social workers.

The exterior of Stony Brook Children’s Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

“Everyone likes to work in a place that has been thoughtfully designed to help them do their best work,” McGovern said. “I think that has resonated, also, with our staff and keeping good staff. We’re recruiting great physicians here. Pediatricians like to work at children’s hospitals because it says a lot about the commitment of the organization to children’s health to have a children’s hospital. I think that has helped us be successful recruiting doctors here from the best training programs in the country to come and join us to help us take care of the kids in Suffolk County.”

According to Stony Brook Medicine officials, the cost of the construction was $73 million and was part of Stony Brook Medicine’s $450 million expansion, which includes a 10-story hospital pavilion and new cancer center. To help with the cost state Senators Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson) and John Flanagan (R-East Northport) secured $50 million from the state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) and the State University of New York, under the leadership of former Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, helped to secure more funds through a $35 million NYSUNY 2020 Challenge Grant.

More contributions came from donors with $25 million from 3,584 contributors to the Children’s Hospital Building Fund, which was supported with two matching gifts of $10 million from an anonymous donor and $2.5 million from the Knapp Swezey Children’s Challenge. An additional $50 million was from a historic $150 million gift to Stony Brook University from Jim and Marilyn Simons.

Delaney Unger, 13, from Selden was on hand for the Oct. 17 ribbon-cutting. An Osteosarcoma survivor, who received a unique amputation called rotationplasty in the spring of 2017, was a patient at Stony Brook Children’s.

“I must say, I am a little jealous of the new beautiful Stony Brook Children’s Hospital,” Delaney said. “I can attest that not only will the children who stay here get the best possible care, but they will also do so in a fantastic new facility designed with them in mind.”

Before the official opening, the hospital invites the community to see the new building Nov. 2 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pre-registration is preferred at stonybrookchildrens.org/openhouse.

SBU tests pancreatic cancer drug discovered on-site

by Daniel Dunaief - October 8, 2019

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Drs Choi and Bingham — Dr. Minsig Choi and Paul Bingham. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

By Daniel Dunaief

The Stony Brook Cancer Center is seeking patients with pancreatic cancer for a phase 3 drug trial of a treatment developed by a husband and wife team at SBU.

Dr. Minsig Choi. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Led by Minsig Choi, the principal investigator of the clinical trial and a medical oncologist at Stony Brook Cancer Center’s gastroenterology team, the study is part of a multicenter effort to test whether a drug known as CPI-613, or devimistat, can extend the lives of people battling against a form of cancer that often has a survival rate of around 8 percent five years after its discovery.

Paul Bingham. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

Patients at Stony Brook will either receive the conventional treatment of FOLFIRINOX, or a combination of a FOLFIRINOX and CPI-613. An earlier study demonstrated a median survival of 20 months with the combination of the two drugs, compared with 11 months with just the standard chemotherapy.

“Pancreatic cancer is such a bad disease,” Choi said. “The overall survival is usually less than a year and life expectancy is very limited.”

Choi said the company that is developing the treatment, Rafael Pharmaceuticals, wanted Stony Brook to be a part of the larger phase 3 study because the drug was developed at the university. Indeed, Stony Brook is the only site on Long Island that is offering this treatment to patients who meet the requirements for the study.

People who have received treatment either from Stony Brook or at other facilities are ineligible to be a part of the current trial, Choi said. Additionally, patients with other conditions, such as cardiac or lung issues, would be excluded.

Additionally, the current study is only for “advanced patients with metastatic” pancreatic cancer, he said. People who have earlier forms of this cancer usually receive surgery or other therapies.

“When you’re testing new drugs, you want to start in a more advanced” clinical condition, he added.

Choi said patients who weren’t a part of the study, however, would still have other medical options.

Zuzana Zachar. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

“The clinical trial is not the only way to treat” pancreatic cancer, he said. These other treatments would include chemotherapy options, palliative care, radiation therapy and other supportive services through social workers.

Choi anticipates that the current study, which his mentor Philip A. Philip, a professor in the Department of Oncology at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit is leading, would likely provide preliminary results in the next 18 to 24 months.

If the early results prove especially effective, the drug may receive a fast-track designation at the Food and Drug Administration. That, however, depends on the response rate and the way patients tolerate the treatment.

At this point, Choi anticipates that most of the side effects will be related to the use of chemotherapy, which causes fatigue and weakness. The CPI-613, at least in preliminary studies, has been “pretty well tolerated,” although it, like other drug regimes, can cause upset stomachs, diarrhea and nausea, he said.

Doctors and researchers cautioned that cancer remains a problematic disease and that other drugs to treat forms of cancer have failed when they reach this final stage before FDA approval, in part because cancer can and often does develop ways to work around efforts to eradicate it.

Still, the FDA wouldn’t have approved the use of this drug in this trial unless the earlier studies had shown positive results. Prior to this broader clinical effort, patients who used CPI-613 in combination with FOLFIRINOX had a tumor response rate of 61 percent, compared with about half that rate without the additional treatment.

Paul Bingham, an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University, and his wife Zuzana Zachar, a research assistant professor and director of Master in Teaching Biology Program at the Institute for STEM Education at Stony Brook, originally invented and discovered the family of drugs that includes CPI-613.

Bingham and Zachar, who are consultants to Rafael Pharmaceuticals, “provide basic scientific support” in connection with this phase 3 trial. “When the FDA asks questions, sometimes it requires us to do basic science” to offer replies, he said.

Zachar and Bingham developed this drug because they anticipated that attacking cancer cell’s metabolism could lead to an effective treatment. Cancer requires considerable energy to continue on its deadly course. This drug, which is a lipoate analog and is an enzyme cofactor in several central processes in metabolism, tricks the disease into believing that it has sufficient energy. Interrupting this energy feedback mechanism causes the cancer cell to starve to death.

While other cells use some of the same energy feedback pathways, they don’t have the same energy demands and the introduction of the drug, which has tumor-specific effects, is rarely fatal for those cells.

The lipoate analog is a “stable version of the normally transient intermediary that lies to the regulatory systems, which causes them to shut down the metabolism of cancer cells,” Bingham said. These cells “run out of energy.”

Zachar said the process of understanding how CPI-613 could become an effective treatment occurred over the course of years and developed through an “accretion of data that starts to fill in a picture and eventually you get enough information to say that it could be” a candidate to help patients. The process is more “incremental than instantaneous.”

Bingham and Zachar are working on a series of additional research papers that reflect the way different tumors and tumor types have different sensitivities to CPI-613. They expect to publish at least one new paper this year and several more next year.

The researchers who developed this drug have had some contact with patients through the process. While they are not doctors, they are grateful that the work they’ve done has “extended and improved people’s lives,” Bingham said, and they are “grateful for that opportunity.”

Zachar added that she is “thrilled that we’ve been able to help.” She appreciates the contribution the patients make to this research because they “stepped to the line and took the risk to try this drug.”

PJS OB-GYN practice joins Stony Brook Medicine physician network

by TBR Staff - August 18, 2019

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Dr. Gustavo SanRoman_01R — Photo from Stony Brook Community Medical

Argen Medical recently joined Stony Brook Community Medical, Stony Brook Medicine’s expanding network of community practices and physicians. The medical group practices obstetrics and gynecology in Port Jefferson Station.

“We are extremely pleased that Dr. Gustavo San Roman is joining the Stony Brook family,” said Dr. Todd Griffin, chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Medicine, Stony Brook Medicine. “He has been an outstanding Ob-Gyn in the community and a wonderful proponent of women’s health.”

Stony Brook Medicine welcomes private practices that are committed not only to the community but to providing the highest level of quality care. Argen Medical has been providing expert, comprehensive care to women of all ages in the community for more than 30 years.

“I am very excited to be back at Stony Brook University Hospital. I have built a practice based on the concept of providing excellent and personalized Ob-Gyn care,” said San Roman. “With this in mind, I have helped to build many strong families in our community. In fact, I am now taking care of the next generation of women whose births I attended many years ago.”

“As a member of Stony Brook Medicine, I have the honor to continue to provide complete personalized Ob-Gyn services in my Port Jefferson Station office and three local hospitals,” he added.

The Argen Medical team, comprised of San Roman and two nurse practitioners, Laura Doti and Jaclyn Cuccinello, welcomes new patients. And as a bilingual practice, they are able to offer comprehensive services to Spanish-speaking patients as well.

For more information, call 631-331-8777.

Pictured in photo, from left, Jaclyn Cuccinello, Gustavo San Roman and Laura Doti.

Stony Brook doctors perform eyelid surgery for man from Galapagos

by David Luces - July 11, 2019

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stonybrookmedicineteam-heirro — From left to right: Daniel Lozeau, Galo Del Heirro, Alexander Dagum, Marissa Ayasse, Richard J Scriven. Photo from SBU

By David Luces

For one Ecuadorian native, attending a lecture by Stony Brook Medicine doctors changed his life.

Galo Del Hierro, 44, who works for the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galapagos, was attending a lecture given by the Stony Brook Medicine team about skin cancer screenings and prevention in the archipelago. After the lecture, Del Hierro approached Alexander Dagum, a reconstructive plastic surgeon at Stony Brook, and showed him a lesion he had on his right eyelid that was not going away and had grown bigger in the last couple of years.

“He came up to me and said, ‘I’ve had this spot that has gotten larger for some time,’” Dagum said. “I looked at it and thought it was pretty suspicious and told him he should see one of our dermatologists.”

The team’s trip in March was part of a mission through Blanca’s House, a Long Island non-profit organization that works to bring much-needed, quality medical care to countries and communities throughout Latin America. The seven-person team from Stony Brook planned on providing screenings and other care for the local community. As they further examined Del Hierro, they realized they might have to bring him 3,051 miles away to Stony Brook for care.

Dr. Daniel Lozeau, a dermatologist and clinical assistant professor at Stony Brook Medicine, took a look at Del Hierro’s lesion and determined that they needed to do a biopsy. After testing was done, Del Hierro was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma.

Lozeau said given the location of the melanoma it would make it difficult to remove.

“On the eyelid you have less room to work with,” he said. “It not like when it’s on someone’s back, where we have a lot more real estate [to work with].”

Dagum said if people in the Galapagos had anything serious, they would have to go over to the mainland in Ecuador, which is quite far. Initially, he tried to find a doctor on the mainland to perform the surgery for Del Hierro instead of bringing him to Stony Brook as it was more convenient for Del Hierro, but he couldn’t find anyone that could do it.

Lozeau said the cancer Del Hierro had is aggressive, and he could have lost his eye and his life.

Dagum then got clearance to perform the surgery as a teaching case at Stony Brook Medicine and with help from the Darwin Foundation and Blanca’s House, Del Hierro was able to come to Stony Brook for the surgery in May.

The Stony Brook plastic surgeon said the procedure takes several days and requires using skin grafts to reconstruct and support the lower eyelid.

“It was important they we got [the melanoma] out as quickly as possible,” Dagum said.

Dagum and colleagues removed the lesion in full around his eyelids, and reconstructed skin around the eyelid so Del Hierro could see properly and blink normally. He had a second procedure to adjust the eyelid.

The Ecuadorian native said through a translator that he was grateful and impressed with the care he received at Stony Brook.

Del Hierro said that he had first noticed the spot on his eyelid when he was 18 years old.

“It was a tiny little dot, and I didn’t really think much of it, I thought it was just a mole,” he said.

He admitted when he first got his diagnosis, he was worried for himself and his family, but trusted Dagum and the team.

With the procedures complete, Dagum said they are waiting for the swelling to go down and everything should settle in and heal up in the next couple of months.

Dagum expects Del Hierro to live normally; however, he recommends he should continue to get screened and have the eyelid area examined periodically.

Del Hierro’s case and the team’s experiences bring to light the importance of skin cancer screening and skin protection, especially during the summer season.

Lozeau said the Academy of Dermatology recommends sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher.

“Most important thing is to constantly re-apply frequently every couple of hours,” he said. “Hats are good to wear and make sure you have eye protection.”

The dermatologist said when it comes to skin cancer, if one notices a spot that hasn’t gone away or has grown in size, he or she should get it checked out. Also, he mentioned spots that constantly bleed or scab over.

“Galo was really fortunate. He was at the right place at the right time,” Lozeau said.

Stony Brook Medicine announces partnership with Eastern Long Island Hospital

by Rita J. Egan - July 2, 2019

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Eastern-Long-Island-Hospital — An aerial view of Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

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.

Stony Brook Medicine, SCPD partner to encourage early detection

by Rita J. Egan - June 20, 2019

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Mobile-mammography-van — Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart and Executive Steve Bellone attend a June 14 press conference to announce a partnership between SCPD and Stony Brook Medicine to host Mobile Mammography Van events in the county. Photo from Suffolk County Police Department

Stony Brook Medicine and the Suffolk County Police Department are joining forces to provide proactive health services to residents.

“By partnering with Stony Brook Medicine to bring their Mobile Mammography Van to a number of different locations all across the county this summer, we are making it easier than ever for working women to get checked.”

— Steve Bellone

Officials announced June 14 that the police department and Stony Brook Medicine’s Mobile Mammography Van will host events this summer at various county locations. The events will provide convenient access to mammography examinations for SCPD employees as well as the public.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, who was previously diagnosed with breast cancer, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone (D), members of the Suffolk County Police Department and Stony Brook’s Mobile Mammography Program coordinator Dr. Patrick Dineen were on hand for the announcement.

“Commissioner Hart should serve as an inspiration to us all, using her own personal experience with breast cancer to raise awareness about the power of early detection, which has saved countless lives,” Bellone said. “By partnering with Stony Brook Medicine to bring their Mobile Mammography Van to a number of different locations all across the county this summer, we are making it easier than ever for working women to get checked.”

Officers from the Community Relations Bureau, Canine and Aviation Sections will be on hand to interact with children while their parents are being screened, according to county officials. Activities will include demonstrations, games and giveaways.

Hart said her first mammogram detected cancer in its earliest stages, and she hoped sharing her story would inspire others to be screened.

“Our mission includes fighting crime and one of the most effective ways to continue to drive down crime is to ensure we are finding new ways to partner with all our communities,” she said. “I believe our partnership with Stony Brook Medicine will serve as a great outreach to members of the community.”

Dineen said Stony Brook Medicine was thrilled about the collaboration.

“Our mission includes fighting crime and one of the most effective ways to continue to drive down crime is to ensure we are finding new ways to partner with all our communities.”

— Geraldine Hart

“The partnership between Stony Brook Medicine and the SCPD strengthens the efforts to ensure that all women from all socioeconomic backgrounds have easier access to screenings since we visit various locations such as businesses, school districts, libraries and churches throughout Long Island,” he said. “Furthermore, not only is the SCPD dedicated to helping our community members, they believe in this program so much that we have scheduled screening events at SCPD headquarters and the 4th Precinct so that staff members are also staying on top of their health.”

Eligible residents can visit the van for screenings at the following locations:

• Diamond in the Pines, 1844 Route 112, Coram — June 29 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

• St. Hugh of Lincoln R.C. Church, 21 E. 9th St., Huntington Station — July 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• St. Anne’s R.C. Church, 88 2nd Ave., Brentwood — July 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

• SCPD 4th Precinct, 727 Route 454, Hauppauge — July 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

According to Stony Brook’s website, the Mobile Mammography Van team provides services to women on Long Island, age 40 and older, who have not had a mammogram in the last year and are not pregnant. No prescription is needed. Women seeking mammograms at the mobile events should not have implants or breast issues, such as a lump or nipple discharge, and never been diagnosed with breast cancer. They should also have had an office visit with a gynecologist, primary care physician or internist within the past year who is willing to accept the results of the screening. Individuals who do not have health insurance will be processed through the Cancer Services Program of New York, if eligible. On the day of the mammogram, women should not wear deodorant, perfume, powders, lotions or creams on the breast area.

The van travels Suffolk and Nassau counties all year round and features a registration area, waiting room, private changing and exam space, 3-D equipment and an all-female medical staff.

For more information, call 1-833-MY-MAMMO or Dineen’s office at 631-432-0267.

Former Mets player grateful for new kidney after SBU hospital procedure

by Rita J. Egan - May 14, 2019

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M_190510_ Ed Kranepool Kidney Chain Press Conference _93w — Dr. Frank S. Darras presents a signed baseball from the Stony Brook Medicine kidney transplant program to the 1969 World Champion Miracle Mets player Edward Kranepool. Photo from Stony Brook University

Ed Kranepool has proven once again that miracles do happen, especially when one is part of a team.

The former baseball player, who was a member of the Miracle Mets in 1969, received a new kidney last week at Stony Brook University Hospital thanks to a kidney paired exchange. Kranepool said before the transplant he had two teams — his family, and the Mets organization.

Dr. Frank S. Darras, medical director of Transplantation Services, back row left, and Dr. Wayne Waltzer, director of Kidney Transplantation Program, back row right, discuss four life-changing kidney swap surgeries in one day May 10. Photo from Stony Brook Medicine

“Now I have an extended team,” he said. “I have our donors here today who certainly without them this program doesn’t exist, and you have to be forever grateful to them.”

Kranepool, 74, received a kidney from Deborah Barbieri, who was hoping to donate a kidney to her husband, but it turned out she wasn’t a match for him due to their different blood types. However, it turned out she was a match with Kranepool. Her husband Al Barbieri received a kidney the same day donated from Port Authority police officer Brian Cooney.

At a May 10 press conference at the hospital, three days after Kranepool, the Barbieris and Cooney underwent their procedures, they joined Dr. Frank Darras, medical director of Transplantation Services, and Dr. Wayne Waltzer, director of Kidney Transplantation Program, to discuss their experiences.

Darras said many with a need for a new kidney are on a waiting list for months or even years. More than 113,000 Americans are waiting for a transplant of some kind, and 80,000 are waiting for a kidney transplant. Out of those 80,000, 8,000 of them live in New York state.

He said many times a family member or friend wants to help a patient, but their blood types don’t match, like in the case of the Barbieris, or the potential donor has health problems of their own. Because of those long odds, he called the donors heroes.

“They do this to help somebody else,” Darras said.

He said Cooney’s altruistic call to the program set the paired exchange chain in motion.

“With that came the reality that we can do a paired exchange, because when he was tested the highest person of his blood type, blood type A, was Mr. Barbieri,” Darras said. “So, then we looked at his wife, who had been a willing donor for a couple of months as blood type AB, which is the most uncommon blood type, and we ran the AB blood list, and Mr. Kranepool was the highest on the AB list with the longest waiting time. So that’s what triggered us to get to this point today.”

The doctor said after the surgery, the remaining kidney of Cooney and Deborah Barbieri would grow and compensate to do 75-80 percent of the work, and there is no significant decrease in life expectancy or increase in kidney failure. He said patients have lived entire lives with a sole kidney, and those who receive one before undergoing dialysis treatments tend to do better. Kranepool was not at the point where he needed dialysis, and Darras said it would have been difficult for him due to high blood pressure and diabetes. A patient on dialysis can gain another five to seven years, while one who receives a new kidney can live another 15 years or more.

Waltzer added there is a discrepancy between those who need a kidney and those who donate. In 2018 there were only 1,619 living donor transplants in the state of New York and 1,047 deceased organ donors. He said the national visibility that Kranepool has given the cause could benefit everyone in need of an organ.

Cooney, 45, a former NYPD officer, said when he responded to Ground Zero after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks Sept. 11, 2001, he witnessed devastation and, in the years that followed, more tragedy as first responders died from 9/11-related diseases. He said he realized how fortunate he is.

“I’d have a blessed life and a blessed career,” Cooney said. “I have very few problems to speak of and nothing to complain about.”

“It’s very difficult to see when you sit there with people who are next to you one day in the chair, and the next day they’re not there.”

— Al Barbieri

It was a few months ago he placed a call to the transplant center, and he said a few days after a visit to the hospital for a general checkup and consultation, he received the call that he was a match for someone.

“Sure enough I was able to set a chain in motion,” he said.

Al Barbieri, a volunteer firefighter in Glenwood Landing since 1982, said he was grateful for all the help in him getting his new kidney. He was placed on dialysis in 2016, four hours at a time, and he has seen many fellow patients lose their battles against kidney disease.

“It’s very difficult to see when you sit there with people who are next to you one day in the chair, and the next day they’re not there,” he said.

At the brink of crying, the organ recipient said he felt fortunate that he could now see his children graduate and be able to go to their weddings and meet his future grandchildren one day.

“Police officers are here in the world today, so firefighters can have heroes too,” he said.

Deborah Barbieri said that dialysis had made it difficult for the couple to go places, especially on vacation, something both of them are looking forward to doing once again.

“I decided to take a shot and go on the list, and it’s the best thing I ever did,” she said.

Kranepool said he felt fortunate to have Deborah Barbieri and Cooney step forward, and he wants to see the same happen for others by continuing to raise awareness. Last year, the former Mets player held press conferences around Long Island to urge residents to sign organ donation forms, and he said he plans to continue spreading the word about the importance of organ donations.

“You get that call,” he said. “I mean, they saved your life.”

This summer, Kranepool said he’s looking forward to spending time in the Hamptons with his wife, and also celebrating in the 50th anniversary of the Miracle Mets in June.

On the day he received the call that there was a donor for him, Kranepool said he had just finished telling his wife to stay positive about his situation. Then 10 minutes later the phone rang.

“It was like magic,” he said. “Something really happened right there.”

Stony Brook Medicine’s new brain surgery is a lifesaver

by Daniel Dunaief - March 14, 2019

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sbfiorellasantilli — Dr. David Fiorella with patient Danielle Santilli who received a new treatment for aneurysms. Photo by Greg Filiano

By Daniel Dunaief

[email protected]

Danielle Santilli grappled with numerous discomforts, from headaches to nausea to dizziness, especially when she traveled in a car or stood up quickly. After a series of tests, however, she learned she had a wide-necked bifurcation aneurysm, which is one of the more common types of aneurysms.

A diagnosis that has potentially severe consequences, an aneurysm is an area in a blood vessel that grows like a balloon. If it ruptures, it can cause dangerous bleeding.

Santilli became a patient of Stony Brook Medicine’s interventional radiologist and professor of neurological surgery and radiology David Fiorella. Santilli was thrilled with the timing, as Fiorella was a co-principal investigator on a recently completed U.S. Food and Drug Administration study for a minimally invasive surgical technique that involves implanting a Woven EndoBridge or WEB.

“I feel very fortunate,” Santilli said of the opportunity to be one of the first to receive the treatment.

The FDA approved the use of the WEB in January. European doctors have used it effectively since 2011.

The WEB is a spherical structure that’s braided out of fine-shaped memory filaments of metal called nitinol, which is a combination of nickel and titanium. The WEB behaves more like a rubber band than a paper clip and wants to return to its original shape. Doctors insert it into a microcatheter in the femoral artery near the groin. Once they release it in an aneurysm and stretch it out, the WEB expands into a spherical shape inside the blood vessel.

The body grows new tissue over the aneurysm neck along the metal mesh, which is akin to sealing off a well.

The alternative for people with this type of aneurysm can often involve more invasive, open-brained surgery, Fiorella said.

The procedure takes about 40 minutes and often requires a one-night hospital stay. Patients with a WEB procedure also require aspirin for a short period, compared with six months of a blood thinner and then aspirin for much longer periods for other surgical alternatives.

Fiorella explained that there were two types of aneurysms. An unruptured version typically doesn’t have any symptoms. Doctors usually discover these through a screening for other symptoms or because of a family history. Patients in this group sometimes receive scans for different and unrelated reasons.

Robert Walsh, a 66-year-old retiree and resident of South Jamesport, went to a doctor to check himself out after his younger sister died earlier this year from an aneurysm. Tests revealed that he, too, had an aneurysm.

A month after his sister died, Walsh had the WEB procedure.

Fiorella and his staff “are probably the best I’ve ever encountered,” Walsh said. “I’m impressed with him and his entire staff for everything they did, with follow-ups, calling in prescriptions, getting my pre-op ready. I have a lot of confidence in Dr. Fiorella.”

People with a ruptured aneurysm are dealing with bleeding into their brain. This typically causes symptoms like the worst headache people have ever had, vomiting or a loss of consciousness of rapid neurological deterioration.

The survival rate for people in these circumstances is lower and depends on whether they make it to the hospital.

The WEB is helpful for patients who have a ruptured aneurysm. Other techniques, such as stents, are not usable for patients under these conditions.

“A lot of other tools are off the table” with a ruptured aneurysm, but the WEB is “very effective,” Fiorella said.

Some potential patients with a wide-necked bifurcation may not be good candidates for a WEB because their aneurysm is too small or too large for the device.

Stony Brook has extensive experience with the WEB. Doctors who want to perform a similar procedure at other hospitals need extensive training from experienced physicians who can prepare them for the procedure.

Long Island residents should know they have a “major center right here that’s doing work that surpasses anything going on in Long Island or, in most cases, in the city” with endovascular surgery, Fiorella said.

Santilli feels the doctor “saved my life,” and is delighted that she “doesn’t have to worry about using a blood thinner.”

The procedure changed the way Santilli and her family live. They are making healthier lifestyle choices. She and her husband Frank are cutting back on smoking, and she is also buying fruit instead of sugary snacks for the house.

Santilli said she feels fortunate that Fiorella was able to perform the procedure.

“I feel like I got a second chance,” she said.

Ward Melville Heritage Organization raises $5K for cancer research

by Rita J. Egan - February 28, 2019

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The Ward Melville Heritage Organization hosted A “Taste” of Stony Brook Village … Ladies Night In! Feb. 26 at WMHO’s Educational & Cultural Center. Gloria Rocchio, president of WMHO, said the organization reached the event fundraising goal of $5,000 for breast cancer research at Stony Brook Medicine.

The night featured a fashion show celebrating clothing store Chico’s 25th anniversary in Stony Brook Village Center, which was the chain’s first one in New York.

The night also included music by Roberta Fabiano, food sampling, hair and virtual reality demonstrations, raffles, giveaways and raffle baskets. Members of Roseland School of Dance were on hand to teach attendees how to dance the Macarena and the cha-cha slide, too.

Rocchio said WMHO raised $45,000 during its Walk for Beauty at the Stony Brook Village Center Oct. 21. She said the organization plans to present a check for $50,000 to Stony Brook Medicine in the near future.

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