| Huntington
Hospital was founded as a result of a charitable
act. In 1914, recognizing that the nine bed Winkworth
Cottage Hospital on New Street could no longer
meet the needs of a growing community, Cornelia
Prime, daughter of a prominent New York banking
family, donated a house located on five acres
of land on Park Avenue. The original hospital
still stands today, adjacent to the main structure.
Construction commenced under the direction of
a community board of trustees and on May 1, 1916,
Huntington Hospital formally opened to receive
its first patients. With 18 adult and 4 children's
beds plus 6 bassinets, and 16 attending physicians,
the new hospital admitted 334 patients in its
first year. The average cost per patient was $3.36
a day.
May 26, 1917 marks the anniversary of the first
formal meeting of the Women's Auxiliary of Huntington
Hospital. This organization of volunteers also
began as a result of charitable intent as it was
organized for the purpose of "raising and
disbursing funds to provide supplies, not including
drugs, for the hospital and its patients."
The hospital steadily outgrew its original quarters
and as a result of a fund raising effort spearheaded
by the Chamber of Commerce, a new building with
70 adult beds, 7 children's beds and 16 bassinets
opened its doors on September 23, 1933. That building
is today's West Wing of the hospital. The Auxiliary
had 270 members, helped raise money for the new
hospital and donated a Chrysler ambulance to transport
patients in need of emergency care.
By the 1950's the town had grown dramatically
and the hospital leadership recognized the need
to grow with it. On October 26, 1958, the East
Wing was dedicated. Beds numbered 195, admissions
exceeded 12,000 and births totaled 2,610.
Intent on keeping pace with the demands of a
rapidly expanding community, the 1960's saw unprecedented
hospital expansion as well. In 1962 the six story
South Wing opened, followed by the first stage
of the North Wing in 1969 and stage two in 1971.
Bed capacity reached 398.
Growth in population meant more patients and
the need for more services; far more services
than the existing facility could handle. We entered
the 1980's with a $19 million Northeast Wing construction
giving rise to a Kidney Dialysis Unit, Coronary
Care Unit, Ambulatory Surgery Unit, Emergency
Room, 30 bed Maternity and Nursery, CAT scanner
and six laboratories. All new, all state-of-the-art,
and all ready to meet the medical and technological
needs of a sophisticated and burgeoning community.
The beginning of the 1990's gave us little warning
as to what to expect. Managed care would change
the face of how medical care would be delivered
and how it would be paid for, breast cancer was
reaching epidemic proportions on Long Island and
a shifting population brought an influx of new
immigrants, working poor and medically indigent.
Again, the volunteer and professional leadership
rallied to meet the needs of this community. In
1993 a successful fund raising campaign enabled
us to open a dedicated Breast Care Center which
featured Suffolk County's first stereotactic needle
biopsy machine. In 1994, a $5.5 million fund raising
capital campaign was instituted for the purpose
of building Long Island's first privately funded
primary care facility for the medically underserved.
In October, 1995 the 19,000 square foot Dolan
Family Health Center, named as a result of a $1
million lead gift from the Dolan Family Foundation,
opened its doors, thus ensuring the availability
of accessible and affordable primary care for
all Huntington residents regardless of their ability
to pay.
With the opening of the Surgical Services Pavilion
in December 2004, another important fund raising
capital campaign came to fruition. At this time,
the hospital more than doubled in square footage
its surgical facility. Ten new operating rooms
were equipped with the latest surgical technologies
including robotic arms, flat screen monitors,
harmonic scalpels, specialized lasers, and Xenon
lighting. In addition to providing patients with
state-of-the-art services available close to home,
the Surgical Services Pavilion also allowed for
a streamlining of services. All pre-admission
testing needs were now able to be handled within
this one convenient location.
Today Huntington Hospital has 408 inpatient beds,
although due to the shift in outpatient and
ambulatory services, beds, bricks or mortar
no longer define hospitals. A creditable history
of nearly a century of growth, meeting needs,
keeping abreast of the latest medical technology
accomplished by visionary leadership, with community
involvement, voluntarism and charitable donations,
has set the stage for the hospital to address
the challenges that lie ahead in this 21st century.
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