Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s freestanding emergency department on Pantigo Road in East Hampton is almost ready to open its doors to the South Fork’s easternmost residents in need of immediate care.
Hospital officials said on Dec. 13, during a media tour of the sparkling-new, 22,000-square-foot facility, that they anticipate a formal opening in the spring of 2025, following an approximately two-year construction process now deemed complete. As of this week, though, signs are still posted in the driveway and parking lot informing patients that it’s not open just yet, as the hospital awaits final approvals allowing it to open to the public.
The freestanding emergency department will serve a key role within Stony Brook’s “continuum of care,” said Emily Mastaler, chief administrative officer of Stony Brook Southampton. Soon, she said, with expanded access to emergency care in East Hampton Town, the heavy demand on Southampton’s emergency room will ease up and allow resources to be allocated where they can best serve the community.
“Things are moving forward, and it’s very exciting to see it come together,” she said.
The 11 treatment rooms, obstetrics and gynecology suite, isolation room, and triage room have been outfitted with beds and other infrastructure as needed. Treatment rooms are spacious enough to allow doctors full access around each bed, and they all have private bathrooms. There are smaller “fast-track” spaces for patients with less intensive needs to be seen and discharged quickly. Most of the imaging machines and laboratory equipment are now in place and are being calibrated for proper use. They are all state of the art, Ms. Mastaler said.
Inside the hospital, the circular layout is designed to enable doctors, nurses, and technicians to move patients seamlessly from one area to another as various treatment needs emerge. The ambulance arrival bay at the back side of the building opens through wide doors directly into the treatment and triage rooms and imaging facilities.
“Emergency care is all about time . . . so the design is really intentional,” Ms. Mastaler said.
Internal windows allow line-of-sight views from the nurses’ workstations to each treatment room, though curtains can also be closed when privacy is needed. With floor-to-ceiling windows to the outside, a soft color palette, and gentle lighting throughout the building, the “calming aesthetics” were also purposeful, according to Dr. William Wertheim, executive vice president of Stony Brook Medicine.
“The Stony Brook East Hampton Emergency Department was intentionally designed to help induce calm and healing,” he said. “The entrance is welcoming, and the overall aesthetic blends into the natural landscape. Inside, the exam rooms have natural light with windows looking out on nature.”
In another room, a lounge for emergency medical personnel including ambulance drivers and paramedics. Many people, Dr. Wertheim said, don’t know that Stony Brook operates the countywide medical control system, routing ambulances to the facilities best equipped to serve patients based on their injuries and other needs — even if it’s not a Stony Brook campus per se. Ambulance drivers “don’t make these decisions on their own.”
“You can stabilize here, then go to Stony Brook Southampton Hospital,” he said. “You’re always much better going to the closest facility.”
Financially, the new emergency department is “very much on track. Like all fund-raising projects, there is a little ways to go . . . but it has been very positive,” said Julia McCormack, president of the Southampton Hospital Foundation.
A $10 million grant from New York State, combined with $30 million in community-based fund-raising, has allowed it to take shape as quickly as it did. Partnerships with the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation and organizations affiliated with Southampton Hospital were also key, said Carol Gomes, chief executive officer and chief operating officer of Stony Brook University Hospital. “I believe that’s why the fund-raising has been so successful,” she said.
The facility is also focused on sustainability, Ms. Gomes added. The roof is equipped with solar panels, the landscaping consists largely of native plants, the ambulance bay can charge electric vehicles, and energy and temperature settings are adjustable based on which rooms are being used.
Another current effort is to secure the appropriate level of staffing, which Ms. Mastaler said had been a priority as early as the summer of 2023, even before she joined the hospital staff in February 2024. There’s a big push to cut the ribbon before Memorial Day in 2025, she said, so that the new team can hold drills and practice scenarios to get acclimated in their new space before patients arrive.
“We have had quite a few folks interested” in working there, Ms. Mastaler said. The East Hampton facility will also have access to a network of physicians who travel across the Stony Brook Medicine system, including the main Stony Brook campus, the Southampton campus, and Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport.
The last step, Ms. Mastaler said, is obtaining a certificate of occupancy in tandem with final approval from the Suffolk County Department of Health Services.
“We are thrilled to be celebrating this milestone with our community,” Ms. Mastaler said in a statement. “The completion of the construction for this remarkable emergency department is the product of a tremendous collaborative effort between Stony Brook Medicine, Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, the Southampton Hospital Association and Foundation, and the East Hampton Healthcare Foundation, with the support of local donors, homeowners, officials, businesses, and community organizations. The facility demonstrates Stony Brook Medicine’s commitment to ensuring easy access to essential, world-class health care as close to home as possible.”