Catholic Health breaks ground on $17M center, its first to offer urgent care 

Catholic Health is building a $17 million urgent, primary and specialty care practice in Centereach, its first to offer walk-in treatment outside a hospital.

The 63,000-square-foot facility at 2112 Middle Country Rd. is expected to open next spring.

In addition to urgent and primary care services, including pediatrics and women’s health, the center will provide behavioral health, cardiology, endocrinology, neurosciences, orthopedics, pulmonology and radiology services, Dr. Avni Thakore, president of the Catholic Health Physician Partners medical group, said in an interview Monday.

The practice will be one of the largest outpatient facilities operated by Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health, which held a groundbreaking ceremony for it Monday.

“It really will be all-inclusive,” Thakore said. Additional services will be offered based on patients’ needs, she said.

The facility will be one of many new multispecialty practices on Long Island.

Stony Brook Medicine is developing a 170,000-square-foot facility in the former Sears at the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove, expected to open early next year. NYU Langone Health opened a 54,000-square-foot practice last year in Bethpage. Mount Sinai Doctors runs an 80,000-square-foot facility in Greenlawn. In August, Northwell plans to open a 10,000-square-foot center with 21 exam rooms in Huntington.

In addition, Catholic Health is developing multispecialty practices in Westbury and Hicksville, among other locations. The health care system is expanding its network of  "integrated hospitals, physicians and outpatient care centers,” Catholic Health president and CEO Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy said in a statement.

“It's clear to us in Catholic Health here, and I think to those in health care in general, that health care is largely moving in many instances to the outpatient model,” Thakore said. The shift makes health care more accessible, comfortable and cost-effective, she said: “Patients are finding it more and more important for them to be able to access care for a wide range of specialties … [as well as] urgent care, in the community rather than having to travel to a hospital.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story included an incorrect opening date for Stony Brook Medicine's planned Lake Grove facility. 

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott is a reporter on the investigations desk. Since starting at Newsday in 2012, she has also covered real estate and the business of health care.