Good Samaritan Hospital takes on new name to reflect role in education

Good Samaritan Hospital has a new name.

The West Islip institution is now called Good Samaritan University Hospital to reflect its commitment to training the next generation of doctors, Catholic Health said.

“Good Samaritan has had a longstanding history of providing graduate medical education and research associated with those programs, dating back to 1994,” Ruth E. Hennessey, the hospital’s president, said in an interview Thursday. The new name, she said, “really reflects our true identity.”

More than 500 physicians have graduated from the hospital’s residency program, which trains medical school graduates to become licensed doctors, and many of its graduates have stayed on Long Island to practice medicine, according to Rockville Centre-based Catholic Health.

Good Samaritan offers residency training programs in emergency medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, podiatric surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, as well as fellowship training programs in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery and pediatric emergency medicine.

The hospital also is a clinical campus for the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. In addition, it supports medical student rotations in all six Catholic Health hospitals and sponsors the health care system's physical medicine and rehabilitation residency training program at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre.

The new name is not the only big change at the 437-bed hospital. Good Samaritan broke ground this year on a $500 million expansion that is expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2025.

The 300,000-square-foot addition will include an upgraded adult and pediatric emergency department, 16 operating rooms, an enhanced surgical suite to accommodate the growing number of minimally invasive procedures and three floors of private patient rooms. The expansion is expected to help recruit residents and physicians to the hospital, Catholic Health said. It will not add beds to the hospital, the health care system said.

Good Samaritan employs more than 3,500 people and has more than 1,200 physicians.

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.