(Long Island, NY) Assemblyman Michael Montesano (R,I,C-Glen Head) announced his opposition to plans that would close beds at Glen Cove Hospital and turn it into an ambulatory care facility next January. Montesano signaled his opposition to the proposed changes by writing to the New York State Department of Health, urging Commissioner Nirav R. Shah to deny the health system’s application to decertify the hospital’s beds, citing the need to maintain and protect the type of local hospitals that communities rely upon.
“Our community needs Glen Cove Hospital,” said Montesano. “We must oppose any move to change the hospital into an ambulatory care facility, which is essentially a large doctor’s office. Inpatient beds are critical to good health care. Glen Cove Hospital provides important services to this community, offering access to quality health care while also providing employment for 1,200 men and women who are committed to helping our residents in their times of need.”
Assemblyman Montesano noted that programs such as orthopedic surgery, rehabilitation, brain injury treatment, and psychiatric treatment, will move to other facilities due to the decertification. The programs may move outside the community, making it more difficult for residents to have access to quality health care.
“We should be celebrating smaller, local hospitals; instead, new federal health care regulations are forcing us to close them,” Assemblyman Montesano said. “That is why I’m calling on the Commissioner of the Department of Health to deny the application to decertify Glen Cove Hospital and turn it into an ambulatory care facility. Residents across Long Island rely on the hospital for the excellent and varied services performed there, services they may not be able to receive elsewhere. I urge Commissioner Shah to reject this application and keep Glen Cove Hospital as is.”
Glen Cove Hospital provides important health care services to the communities of Glen Cove, Glen Head, Lattingtown, Muttontown, Locust Valley, Matinnecock and Bayville. Several nursing homes and assisted-living facilities that rely on the Glen Cove Hospital for inpatient and emergency room treatment are located in these towns. A conversion to an ambulatory care facility would put the hospital in severe danger of losing its emergency room certification in the next two years due to a lack of inpatient beds.
