NYU Langone completes merger with Winthrop Hospital in Mineola

Manhattan-based NYU Langone Health on Thursday said it has completed its merger with NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola.

Winthrop has been affiliated with NYU since 2017.

NYU Langone said that patients at NYU Winthrop Hospital now have access to NYU's specialized services and resources, including increased access to clinical trials.

NYU said it is making capital improvements to expand and modernize NYU Winthrop.

The former Winthrop University Hospital — a major health care force on Long Island for 120 years — started having affiliation discussions with NYU Langone in July 2016, when Winthrop executives announced they had signed a "non-binding" letter of intent.

Winthrop was founded in 1896 as the Island’s first community hospital by a group of physicians.

Other health systems have also expanded recently by taking over formerly independent hospitals as the cost of operating an individual hospital has become financially challenging.

For example, John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson became part of Northwell Health in January 2018. At about the same time, Oceanside-based South Nassau Communities Hospital joined Manhattan-based Mount Sinai Health System.

Brookhaven-based Long Island Community Hospital, the last independent community hospital in the region, is considering an affiliation agreement with Stony Brook University Hospital, the health system said in June.

Stony Brook in recent years has expanded its hospital and ambulatory network throughout Suffolk County. Stony Brook Southampton Hospital officially joined the health system in 2017 after a process that lasted nearly five years. The deal required multiple state regulatory approvals.