Two facilities join North Shore-LIJ system

South Oaks Hospital and Broadlawn Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Amityville are joining the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, it was announced Monday.

One of two stand-alone private psychiatric facilities in Suffolk, South Oaks, with 233 beds, brings to 16 the number of hospitals in the North Shore-LIJ system.

Broadlawn Manor, with 320 nursing home beds, has been clinically affiliated with North Shore-LIJ for several years. North Shore-LIJ owns two other extended care facilities and is affiliated with 17 more.

Robert Detor, chief executive of The Long Island Home, which includes South Oaks and Broadlawn, said the move, which went into effect July 1, culminates talks with North Shore-LIJ chief executive Michael Dowling that began about five years ago.

"In my view, no way can a stand-alone institution make it in the current health care environment," he said. "This will give us an investment in clinical development and put us in the new world of health care."

The psychiatric hospital and nursing home were affiliated with Catholic Health Services of Long Island and Winthrop-University Hospital of the Winthrop-South Nassau University Health System, partnered in a joint venture, from 1999 to 2004.

North Shore-LIJ spokesman Terry Lynam said Dowling had always been impressed with how well the hospital and nursing home were run. And, Lynam said, the health system wanted to expand its mental health services beyond its Zucker Hillside Hospital, a 236-bed psychiatric hospital in Glen Oaks, Queens. Brunswick Hall in Amityville is the other private psychiatric stand-alone facility in Suffolk, with 124 beds.

"This clearly enables us to offer service to a community beyond our reach right now," Lynam said.

With 1,153 employees at South Oaks and Broadlawn, that brings to 44,000 the number of employees at North Shore-LIJ, already the largest employer on Long Island.