Northwell opens heart hospital, touts facility as among largest cardiac centers in state

Michael Dowling, Northwell’s president and CEO, and heart patient Al Mullery, join James Taylor, MD and Barry Kaplan, MD, co-directors of the Heart Hospital at North Shore University Hospital, along with Alessandro Bellucci, MD, executive director of NSUH, and cardiothoracic surgeon Alan Hartman, MD.

New York-based Northwell Health on Friday opened the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, establishing one of the state's largest cardiac centers. The new facility supports a staff of over 700, including surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and other specialists.

The center is expected to perform more than 1,500 open heart surgeries and 3,000 cardiac interventions annually.

The Long Island Jewish Medical Center will continue to offer interventional cardiology services at its New Hyde Park campus, but all of the hospital's cardiac surgery staff are now part of the new Heart Hospital at North Shore.

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The new hospital also includes a 22-bed cardiothoracic intensive care unit staffed around the clock by critical care physicians, five operating rooms dedicated to cardiac patients, and eight cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs. A board-certified cardiologist will be on site at all times, and the cardiac catheterization labs will stay open on weekends.

Construction was recently completed on a new, dedicated entrance for the Heart Hospital, and it will benefit from the use of NSUH's rooftop helipad. The Heart Hospital accepts transfers from other hospitals through SkyHealth, the New York area's first hospital-based, helicopter emergency medical service, which Northwell established in 2014.

Northwell, which was formerly known as the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, is the largest health system in New York.

Twitter: @JELagasse