| First
Impressions Matter
We understand that coming to the hospital for any reason
can be a stressful experience. In order to create a
soothing environment that supports our mission of healing,
Huntington Hospital’s Surgical Services Pavilion
was designed with your every comfort and convenience
in mind.
Parking
We encourage you to take advantage of our free valet
parking, which is available at the front circle, near
the main hospital entrance. Valet attendants are on
duty Monday through Friday, from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
Parking is also available in the lower lot on the corner
of Park Avenue and View Acre Drive. Handicapped parking
is available throughout the grounds of the hospital.
A limited number of reserved parking spaces are available
for maternity patients near the entrance to Maternity
in the East Parking Lot. Courtesy telephones are located
throughout the parking areas. These will connect patients
and visitors who have difficulty walking to and from
their cars directly to our Security Staff, who will
be happy to provide transportation between the parking
fields and the hospital
Pre-Admission Testing a Breeze
Within the Surgical Services Pavilion, just to the
right of the main entrance, is the Pre-Admission
Testing Unit. Patients simply register at the desk,
and all of their pre-admission testing needs are
handled within one convenient location. Here, patients
meet with a nurse practitioner who takes their medical
history, and orders and interprets any diagnostic
examinations that may be required prior to admission
or surgery. These may include a chest x-ray, electrocardiogram,
blood pressure check, laboratory analysis of
blood and/or urine, and other tests as necessary. Those
who are scheduled for surgery also have an opportunity
to meet with one of our highly qualified anesthesiologists
who will discuss the type of
anesthesia that will be administered during the procedure,
as well as pain management options following surgery.
Pre-admission testing takes approximately an hour
and a half or less.
Surgical Facilities
Huntington Hospital’s Surgical Services Pavilion
provides patients with an environment that maximizes
patient safety, convenience, and privacy.
Twelve
state-of-the-art operating rooms provide our surgeons
with adequate space in order to offer patients the
latest surgical technologies. Robotic arms, flat
screen monitors, harmonic scalpels and specialized
lasers can be deployed from above, keeping the floor
space cleared of obstructive equipment. Suspended
from the ceiling of each operating room is a Xenon
light. Huntington Hospital is one of only a few
in the nation to provide this soft, natural light
within every one of its operating rooms. During
video-assisted procedures, green light floods the
operating room to reduce video monitor glare.
At the hub of the operating rooms is a centrally located,
sterile nucleus that buzzes with activity. Registered
nurses, surgeons, and technologists circulate throughout
this area. Nurses keep track of the activities, equipment,
and staffing needs of each of the operating rooms via
a sophisticated video monitoring system. Unique glass-paneled
“passthroughs” enable staff to provide sterile
equipment to each room as needed.
A specialized dumbwaiter transports sterile surgical
instruments and supplies into this central core directly
from the hospital’s Sterile Supply Department.
Used equipment is removed from the operating rooms via
the area’s perimeter and sent back to Sterile
Supply via a separate lift. This “one-way”
system improves sterility and infection control within
the operating rooms.
Who is Behind the Mask?
More than 500 physicians provide expert, dedicated care
to the 45,000 patients who visit our Emergency Room,
and to more than 12,000 others who have surgery each
year at Huntington Hospital. Specialists in every field
ensure that infants, seniors and everyone in between
receive the highest quality healthcare for a wide range
of conditions. Coming to practice on Long Island’s
north shore from highly regarded programs around the
country, our doctors bring the best of 21st century
medicine to the Huntington community. Attend our medical
conferences, or listen in to hushed hallway consultations,
and you’ll hear graduates of Cornell, Columbia
and Mt. Sinai sharing best practices with colleagues
from Harvard, Tufts and Duke. A number of our staff
members share their knowledge with the wider healthcare
community by lecturing at national meetings, publishing
original research in the most prestigious journals,
and serving on expert panels that create authoritative
practice guidelines for a nationwide professional audience.
Our physicians also serve as faculty for Stony Brook
medical students, and as mentors for residents and fellows
in such fields as Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, Family
Medicine, Orthopedics, and Cardiology.
Anesthesiologists
Anesthesiologists are responsible for administering
medications that render patients unaware of pain and
other sensations. During surgery, anesthesiologists
are also charged with monitoring and supporting vital
life functions such as breathing, blood pressure, heart
rhythm, and brain and kidney function. The increasing
range of medications that are available, combined with
advanced computerized patient monitoring equipment,
help to ensure that the administration of general anesthesia
is safer than ever before. Huntington Hospital’s
anesthesiologists are Board-certified, and many have
additional expertise in subspecialty areas such as pediatric
anesthesiology, anesthesia/critical care, obstetric
anesthesiology, and post-operative pain management.
Intensivists
With its Intensivist Program, Huntington Hospital has
made a major commitment to providing the highest level
of care to our hospital’s most vulnerable patients.
A team of intensivists, specialists in critical care
medicine, provides around-the-clock presence on the
hospital’s Intensive Care, Intermediate Care,
and Cardiac Care Units. Acting as a “team captain,”
the intensivist helps coordinate the care that a variety
of subspecialists may be providing to critically ill
patients, many of whom are suffering from illnesses
that affect multiple organ systems. The intensivist
can also serve as a “go-to” person for family
members who can discuss their loved ones’ status
with a physician who is familiar with the case at any
time of the day or night.
The Intensivist Program has proven to be much more
than an amenity. The presence of these skilled physicians
has resulted in measurable improvements in outcomes
for critically ill patients.
Hospitalists
Hospitalists are physicians on site 24 hours per day,
7 days a week, who oversee patients’ healthcare
needs while they are hospitalized. These dedicated professionals
work no where else but in the hospital and provide a
vital link in communication between the patients, their
family members and patients’ primary care physicians.
When a physician in the community decides that a patient
requires a hospital stay, he or she telephones the hospitalist,
discusses the patient’s medical history and current
condition, and faxes any pertinent medical records.
The hospitalist then assesses the patient upon admission
and provides the primary care physician with frequent
updates on any changes in the patient’s condition
as well as all discharge notes. Hospitalists are available
around the clock should patients and their family members
have any questions. This model of hospital based care
has been shown to improve the quality and efficiency
of health care as well as both patient and community
based physician satisfaction.
Pediatric Hospitalists
Pediatric hospitalists are pediatricians who specialize
in the management of children’s health problems
in the hospital setting. Like their adult counterparts
described above, they are on site 24 hours per day to
provide continuity of care as well as communication
between the child’s family members and the child’s
community based pediatrician. Huntington’s pediatric
hospitalists work closely with the hospital’s
specialists in pediatric emergency medicine to ensure
timely and clinically excellent care from admission
through discharge as well as peace of mind for the child’s
family.
Surgeons
Huntington Hospital’s Department of Surgery includes
general surgeons, plus many experts in subspecialty
areas including breast surgery, dermatology, maxillofacial
surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic
surgery, hand surgery, spine surgery, pediatric surgery,
podiatry, thoracic surgery, urology, and vascular surgery.
Our surgeons are all Board-certified or Board-eligible.
Huntington Hospital surgeons are often the first in
the region to gain expertise in newly emerging techniques
and many serve as preceptors who teach the latest surgical
applications to surgeons at other facilities.
Nurses
Huntington
Hospital’s nurses achieved a rare distinction
when their efforts resulted in the hospital being named
a “Magnet facility” by the American Nurses
Credentialing Center of the American Nurses Association.
Huntington is Long Island’s first community hospital
to achieve Magnet status. This designation affirms that
Huntington’s nurses practice nursing at its highest
level, and are extraordinarily skilled, educated, and
committed to patient care. There are 540 registered
nurses at Huntington Hospital. Many have obtained advanced
degrees and/or certification within their practice areas.
Quality
Huntington Hospital conducts its own stringent Quality
Management program under the direction and oversight
of a Vice President of Medical Affairs and a Quality
Management Director. Various committees review patient
care, policies and procedures on an ongoing basis to
ensure that patients receive the best and most appropriate
care.
The hospital also benchmarks its outcomes against the
other hospitals in the North Shore-Long Island Jewish
Health System, as well as others across the state. Data
indicates that Huntington Hospital consistently performs
as well as or better than its counterparts in the vast
majority of areas surveyed. In fact, the hospital has
been recognized by the State of New York for its performance
with newborn hepatitis vaccination.
Looking Ahead
The achievements of the recent past are paving the way
for future progress at Huntington Hospital. Renovations
are continuing throughout the facility. Processes and
procedures are continually being evaluated to ensure
that our patients’ needs are being fully met.
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