E.R. For East Hampton Gets Big Boost
Southampton Hospital will receive a $10 million state grant toward construction of a satellite emergency room and health care center in East Hampton, money that will jump-start a project long advocated by East Hampton Town officials.
The facility, which will provide residents with faster access to critical care, could include laboratory and other services such as radiology, as well as doctors’ offices, Marsha Kenny, Southampton Hospital’s director of marketing and public affairs, said yesterday.
Planning is in its earliest stages and no timeline has been announced. “We would like to do it as quickly as possible,” Ms. Kenny said. The total cost of the facility could be as much as $30 million, however, and a lot more money will need to be raised.
Led by Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell, town staffers have been considering town-owned and private properties that might be an appropriate site for the center and have had discussions with hospital officials on the subject, according to Alex Walter, the supervisor’s assistant.
A study being conducted for the hospital by a design firm is to review what would be needed at the facility, and how much space would be required. Then, said Mr. Walter on Tuesday, potential locations would be vetted to find one “that makes sense for everybody.” No matter where the new medical facility ends up, it will benefit residents of the town, he said, “all the people that have been for years, in the Town of East Hampton, trying to get over to the hospital as soon as possible.”
In summer traffic, an ambulance ride from Montauk to the existing hospital site in Southampton can be as long as an hour and a half, Mr. Walter noted. With the hospital’s plans to move to the Stony Brook Southampton campus, west of its present location in Southampton Village, that ride will become even longer.
“It’s huge for the ambulances, and it’s huge for the community members to receive that care as quickly as possible,” Mr. Walter said. In addition to a speedier round trip for ambulances, an East Hampton emergency room could alleviate the strain on local ambulance companies, he said, assuming that many patients will be driven privately to the new health care center once it is closer to home.
Mr. Walter said that Mr. Cantwell, who was out of town this week, has been advocating for an East Hampton E.R. facility since taking office. The promised state grant “is a great first step,” he said. “We’re real excited about this.”
“Southampton Hospital believes that early intervention and care closer to home will ultimately lead to better health care outcomes and a lower-cost delivery system. As a result, we have been diligent in bringing more resources to all our communities,” Robert Chaloner, the Southampton Hospital president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“For some time, we have been concerned that the distance between Southampton and the easternmost communities becomes longer still during the summer when traffic is choking the local roads. This grant will enable us to take a major, innovative step toward our goal of bringing exceptional health care services to the people we serve in Wainscott, East Hampton, Amagansett, and Montauk.”
The $10 million state grant is among a total of $112 million for 16 projects to improve health care on Long Island, part of a $1.5 billion funding package for projects across the state.