East End Health Alliance Speaks on Southampton Hospital News

The East End Health Alliance responded Sunday to news that Southampton Hospital will be opening a new facility at the Stony Brook Southampton site in Southampton.

Southampton Hospital will soon enter into a philanthropic campaign to build a new 125-bed facility at Stony Brook University's Southampton campus under a tentative agreement that will put the hospital under Stony Brook University Medical Center's state operarating license.

The new facility will replace the hospital's current and original home in Southampton Village on Meeting House Lane, which opened in 1909. The two hospitals have had an affiliation since 2008, but the proposed agreement puts Southampton Hospital in the Stony Brook Medicine healthcare system.

"Selecting a system partner is the single most important decision that the Alliance Hospitals will make over the next five to ten years because of its impact on healthcare on the East End of Long Island," the East End Health Alliance said, in a statement Sunday. "Therefore, potential affiliations and governance changes must be developed with care and consideration in the overall context of the health care delivery system of the East End."

Alliance members said they welcome the opportunity to study the agreement between Southampton Hospital and Stony Brook.

"At the same time, Peconic Bay Medical Center and Eastern Long Island Hospital will individually begin to explore their options for potential system affiliations that will best serve the interest of their communities and their respective missions to meet the health care needs of the region," the statement said.

In addition, the East End Health Alliance said as the Alliance hospitals explore and negotiate affiliation agreements, "the Alliance, as the active parent of the three hospitals, will continue to monitor the progress of these discussions and will ultimately have to approve any agreements proposed by the individual Hospitals. As importantly, until such time as agreements are approved by the Alliance and other regulatory agencies as appropriate, the Alliance will continue to serve as the governing body of the three Hospitals and continue to represent their interests."

The three East End hospitals, Eastern Long Island Hospital, Peconic Bay Medical Center and Southampton Hospital, teamed up to establish the East End Health Alliance in 2008 and develop and enhance services.