By ETHAN MARSHALL
After three years of focused fundraising efforts by community members, Glen Cove Hospital has begun renovation and expansion of its $5.5 million outpatient Family Medicine Center. Located on the ground floor since the Family Medicine Center was established in the 1970s, the practice will be relocated to a new modern space on the third floor.
The center’s clinical staff currently provides personalized medical services to patients of all ages. It offers primary, prenatal and pediatric care, preventative services as well as behavioral health and gynecological services to underserved members in the community and other residents.
The expanded, 6,660 square-foot Family Medicine Center is expected to open in late spring 2020. It would serve more than 18,500 patients annually, representing a 40 percent increase in patient volume.
“We have a long and proud history of providing high-quality health care services to members in need in our community,” said Barbara Keber, MD, chair of family medicine at Glen Cove Hospital and vice-chair of family medicine at Northwell Health. “Our new Family Medicine Center will not only accommodate more patients, but the renovation will create a welcoming and modern environment as well as upgrades that enhance clinical care and collaboration.”
The Family Medicine Center will feature 12 exam rooms, bedside ultrasound machines, a procedure room, laboratory and medication room and modern reception and seating areas. A focal point of the space will be a large glass-enclosed area, which will offer central viewing and monitoring of the center. It will also provide much-needed space for clinical team members to collaborate and huddle before patient visits in a confidential setting.
The center is a designated patient-centered medical home that recognizes the coordinated, comprehensive medical care provided by the interdisciplinary team. Clinicians include physicians, residents, nurses, nurse practitioners, social workers and other health care professionals. Many of the center’s staff are bilingual to better communicate with the area’s Spanish-speaking community.
Glen Cove’s Family Medicine Center has the distinction of also being one of the original family medicine residency training programs in the United States. More than 230 board-certified family physicians have received training at Glen Cove Hospital.
“We are extremely grateful to the hospital’s Advisory Council and caring individuals in the community who spearheaded the fundraising campaign for the Family Medicine Center, making this vision into reality,” said Kerri Anne Scanlon, RN, Glen Cove Hospital’s executive director. “The state-of-the-art Family Medicine Center has been designed to provide quality medical care and to deliver the best patient experience possible.”
Nancy Taylor, a member of the Advisory Council and longtime supporter and volunteer at the hospital, said, “We’ve been working towards this goal for a long time. The Family Medicine Center was in dire need of renovation.”
A resident of Locust Valley, Taylor said she was “delighted” when hospital leaders asked if she’d donate to the Family Medicine renovation project through her family charity, the David S. Taylor Fund. Taylor’s late husband, David S. Taylor, served as Board of Trustees chair of the hospital from 1988-1990 and later Board of Trustees chair of the North Shore Health System from 1994-1995. Mrs. Taylor and her family have had a long history of giving back to Glen Cove Hospital. She volunteers once a week at the hospital’s main reception desk and her sister volunteered in the Emergency Department for 33 years. David Taylor worked as an orderly in the hospital when he was young.
To date, the community fundraising efforts have totaled $3.5 million. This will benefit Glen Cove Hospital as part of Northwell Health’s $1 billion “Outpacing the Impossible” campaign, which supports capital projects, improves hospitals and clinical programs, advances research and funds endowment for teaching and research initiatives.
Story submitted by Northwell Health.
