Express Sessions: Clarifying the Vision for The Stony Brook Southampton Campus

One?of?the?best things about my role here at Stony Brook Medicine is the opportunities I have to connect with our community leaders, neighbors and the patients we serve. Recently, I participated on a?panel in Southampton hosted by The Express-News Group, publishers of the Southampton Press and other East End publications, where I, along with other members of Stony Brook University, joined Assemblyman Fred Thiele, Senator Anthony Palumbo and Former Congressman and Southampton College Provost Tim Bishop to discuss the future of our Southampton academic campus and the status of a new Stony Brook Southampton Hospital (SBSH). It was also an opportunity for me to share how Stony Brook Medicine is improving access to healthcare on the East End.

Attendees were a mix of community members and business owners. I was happy to share our plans, learn more about what’s important to the community and reaffirm our commitment to a new and state-of-the-art hospital to replace the current hospital that has served the South Fork for over a century. The?Southampton Hospital Association?discussed how they are responsible for raising the funding for the new hospital and noted they have already raised $60M.?

Of course, healthcare is more than a hospital; we are focused on improving quality healthcare access for the entire region. On the South Fork, this has included constructing a new?Emergency Department in East Hampton, putting?mobile stroke units?on the road, establishing a?catheterization lab at SBSH, and increasing physician recruitment. I am proud of Dr.?Todd Griffin’s work supporting physician recruitment, including creative ways to assist with housing. Our growing healthcare system currently has 133 providers on the South Fork, 51 in Riverhead and 22 on the North Fork. We are committed to continuing this momentum.

The new hospital will also be vital to the?Stony Brook University Southampton?academic campus and greatly expand our ability to educate the next generation of healthcare professionals. It will give our students hands-on experience and help fill a healthcare workforce shortage impacting Stony Brook Medicine and healthcare facilities nationwide. I was happy to also be joined by Wendy Pearson, VP for Strategic Initiatives; Jed Shivers, SVP for Finance and Administration; and Chris Gobler, PhD, Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, who provided valuable insights throughout this discussion.

There was also extensive discussion on the addition of workforce housing since NYS Governor Kathy Hochul had just announced funding in her executive budget to build affordable housing on state land, including SUNY properties, to help recruit healthcare workers and other public service workers. Construction of housing on the Southampton campus would greatly enhance our ability to recruit employees to the area and further improve patient access.?

We are also looking at ways to include indigenous learnings on campus, including language and nutritional studies, underscoring our commitment to the future and demonstrating our deep appreciation of all that has come before us.I am excited about the work we are doing to improve our patients’ ability to acquire care in a range of high-demand specialty practice areas, such as cardiovascular, orthopedics, neurology, women’s, children’s, digestive services and cancer.?

As with so much of what we do, a robust communication cadence is vital to our efforts. I am committed to sharing updates in this space, and we will continue to seek opportunities to engage our East End community and business partners as we evolve our physician and academic?campuses.