Long Island Hospital Completes $560M Surgical Tower
By HCO Staff
MANHASSET, N.Y.—Seventy years after North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) first opened its doors, the Level I trauma center and quaternary care teaching hospital announced in early February the completion of the Petrocelli Surgical Pavilion, a landmark decades-long project that will transform health care in the region. The $560 million, 288,000-square-foot tower will complement nationally recognized cardiac, neurosurgery and transplant programs.
This investment by Northwell Health, New York State’s largest health care provider, represents one of the most significant projects of its kind in the New York Metro area and is an affirmation of its commitment to the communities that it serves. About 40 percent of all patients at NSUH come from Queens while another 5 percent travel more than 100 miles to seek care there.
New York-based Skanska USA broke ground on the capital project in April 2020, which was made possible, in part, through a significant gift from Attilio and Beverly Petrocelli. For nearly 30 years, the Kings Point, LI, couple has supported the health system through numerous development projects and programs at NSUH and Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park. In addition to the Petrocellis, other significant donors to the project include Sandra Atlas Bass, Arlene and Arthur Levine, Clifford and Randi Lane, Rahat and S. Zaki Hossain, Pamela and Laurence Tarica, Flora and Frank Lalezarian, Jodi and Robert Rosenthal, Linda and Seth
Horowitz of the G. & B. Horowitz Family Foundation, and the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation.
NSUH, which has 756 licensed beds and treats more than 90,000 patients each year, is home to the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital (SABHH), the Katz Women’s Hospital, neurosurgery, multi-organ transplant services and one of the busiest emergency departments in the region. NSUH is a Magnet-recognized hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, which spotlights excellence in nursing. In 2023, CMS gave the hospital its highest 5-star rating while US News & World Report named the hospital No. 1 in New York State and top 22 nationally.
The Petrocelli Pavilion will feature 18 operating rooms (ORs), including three hybrid rooms with advanced imaging, along with 132 intensive care rooms (ICUs). Hybrid ORs combine a traditional OR with an image-guided interventional suite, allowing for highly complex, advanced surgical procedures. This project will upgrade and expand the critical care capabilities of NSUH to ensure ever more exceptional care. Following a period of intensive staff training in the new surgical tower, patients will relocate to new critical care units and surgeries will begin later this month.
The new pavilion will serve as home to the SABHH and feature a concierge entrance for cardiac patients and their families. This cardiac program includes the most experienced heart team in New York, which delivered more cardiac care than any other health system in New York State in 2022 with 660,000 ambulatory visits, 38,000 inpatient discharges, 8,700 coronary interventions, 3,900 thoracic surgeries, 3,300 cardiac surgeries and 2,800 cardiac ablations. SABHH led the way. The cardiac hospital was also named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery by Healthgrades.
The Northwell Health Transplant Institute at NSUH features Long Island’s only heart, liver and lung transplant programs. In 2023, it completed its 150th liver transplant since the program first began in 2019 while the heart program celebrated its 100th heart transplant since 2018. Northwell’s transplant program began with kidney in 2007 and added lung in 2022, opening access to thousands of New Yorkers who otherwise would have to go into Manhattan for care.
Northwell features one of the largest academic neurosurgery departments in the nation and the department of neurosurgery at NSUH was recently ranked 19th in the nation for neurology and neurosurgery by U.S. News, its highest ranking to date. The department will perform its 2,000 cases a year in the Petrocelli Surgical Pavilion, outfitted with the latest innovative operative technology and a hybrid OR specially designed for neurosurgical procedures. Patients will also benefit in their post-operative care from the state-of-the-art 22-bed neurosurgical ICU.
To build the pavilion, Skanska employed numerous innovative and emerging technologies throughout the construction process. This included utilizing drones equipped with high-resolution cameras and sensors to provide real-time insights into construction progress and site conditions. The firm used 3D modeling and weekly 360-degree image and video capture to better assess progress. The result is one of the most sophisticated environments anywhere.