Northwell to open $71M women's center at South Shore University Hospital

Northwell Health on Tuesday said it has started construction on its $71 million Women & Infants Center at the recently renamed South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore.

The 45,560-square-foot, two-story center, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022, will double the number of Caesarean section rooms to four and create 29 private rooms for women and their significant others to stay after delivery, according to Northwell.

The center will have a dedicated entrance and a 16-bay neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

"The center is going to be a hospital within a hospital," said Donna Moravick, executive director at South Shore. "Women and families who go to the women's center won't have to go through the main hospital or be around other medical or surgical patients."

The Women & Infants Center is part of a $470-million investment in the hospital to improve its infrastructure and strengthen its clinical and technological capabilities, including numerous physician recruitments, Northwell said.

It also includes a $56 million, five-story, 1,000-car employee garage that Northwell opened last month.

Officials said the new parking garage was designed to ease congestion in the community and make all ground-level parking spaces available for patients and visitors to the hospital.

The garage, on the corner of Union Boulevard and Aletta Place, is anticipated to open up additional parking to downtown Bay Shore. A traffic light has been installed near the parking garage to help provide safe passage across Union Boulevard.

Northwell also opened a $1.4 million renovated lobby and front entrance at Southside. It is planning a new pavilion for 90 private rooms, four operating rooms and 48 pre- and postoperative holding rooms as well.

Northwell last month announced it was renaming the former Southside Hospital to better reflect that the facility is a teaching hospital. The health system said permanent signage, an updated website and an ad campaign publicizing the name change will be in place on Jan. 1.

The New Hyde Park-based health system said it has invested more than $600 million in the hospital since it acquired the facility in 2005.

South Shore University Hospital annually treats 24,000 inpatients, 73,000 outpatients, 62,000 emergency patients, and performs 7,000 surgeries.

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center, a few miles to the west on Montauk Highway, is also upgrading. The hospital, which is operated by Catholic Health Services, said earlier this year it plans a 300,000-square-foot, six-story expansion.

Catholic Health Services said plans include a 16-operating room surgical suite and a 36-bed, private-room inpatient floor. It would also relocate the emergency department.

New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health is the largest health system in the state.