Long Island, NY – With pullout sleeper sofas, 42-inch, flat-screen televisions and wireless Internet connections, the private rooms planned for two Long Island hospitals look more like upscale hotel lodgings than postpartum recovery suites.
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Stark, shared maternity rooms will go the way of outdated wards at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where 161 new suites will each include a bassinet for the newborn and a private bathroom. A small table can be folded out and surrounded with chairs for a celebratory meal.
“It becomes a family affair, which it should be, and you have your privacy to do that,” said Cynthia McKie-Addy, director of maternal-child patient care services for North Shore.
The opening in September of 36 private rooms with hotel-like amenities at Stony Brook University Hospital, the construction of 88 single suites at Long Island Jewish and plans to build 73 such rooms at North Shore next year are part of a move toward single-occupancy maternity accommodations. While the private rooms are thought to be better for patients, hospital officials also hope they will provide a competitive edge in the health care marketplace.
Stony Brook spent $26 million on its new women and infants wing, Long Island Jewish is pumping $250 million into the construction of a women’s hospital and North Shore will spend more than $40 million for its new postpartum suites.
Despite the sums poured into private maternity accommodations, the hospital will charge the standard rate for a single postpartum room, officials said.
“It’s all about patient and family-centered care,” said Lauren Sheprow, a spokeswoman for the hospital at Stony Brook.
Other Long Island hospitals have some single maternity suites, but semiprivate rooms with more than one occupant remain the local standard, said Janine Logan, director of communications for Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council.
Besides market share, health concerns and philosophical decisions about maternity care have spurred the private-room trends, said Sue Gullo, managing director of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization.
“The goal is to keep the mom and baby couplet together as much as possible,” she said.
Private rooms can decrease the risk of infection and increase the likelihood a patient will get needed rest, which can lead to quicker discharge from the hospital, Gullo said.
Breast-feeding is made easier for mothers in a private setting, Gullo said. Other aspects of the family-focused philosophy include space for visiting relatives, such as the sleeper sofa for the mother’s husband or partner.
The best NJ hospitals like Hackensack, Ridgewood and Englewood have had hotel type rooms for many years… only NYCers put up with the slums of big name hospitals with third rate service, just so that the new assistant to a big name doctor can deliver your baby!
i wish they would do something like this at maimonides hospital it’s very much needed.
Yeah, it is very nicebut it is a frill. The most important factor still is the Ribono Shel Olam, the second is the skill and reputation of the MD and staff.
Good Sam has nice delivery rooms, but the recovery rooms leave what to be desired. Actually, what more could one want besides a healthy baby?
I still refuse to believe they will charge standard rates for these rooms…
baruch hashem may this be a new standard soon
Pam Brier ( Pres of Maimonides ) constantly complains that the hospital is losing money with their maternity ward. LICH closed their maternity ward for this reason. So, to see a hospital invest so much money for the maternity ward is unbelievable. How do they do it?.. In Maimonides, the rooms are so small, if someone wants to go to the bed near the window., the person who is visiting the first patient, has to get up from their seat , to make room for the next visitor to enter. The newer rooms are even smaller!
Maimo has the nicest, roomiest labor & delivery rooms than any of the hospitals mentioned above. People just want to complain about anything.. The ikar is a healthy baby period!
What a beautiful thing! A woman who just gave birth should have a room that is comfortableand private for her and her family not having to share a bathroom the way i did while i need to go into the bathroom the other woman’s husband is sitting right in the chair by the bathroom door! Also with the old rooms, it was very difficult and uncomfortable for a husband to stay overnight and it will be so nice for families to be able to stay together comfortably!
it doesnt matter wich hospital u deliver in the main thing is a healthy baby
I’ve delivered my 4 children KA”H at Northshore and found it to be a wonderful, caring hospital. This would make it an even more pleasant place to deliver!
People who are saying that the conditions in the hospital don’t matter have obviously never delivered in Methodist. The labor rooms are nice enough, but the conditions afterwards are horrid. Next time, I am going home straight away after delivery. At least in my own home, there is food and I can get a tylenol without having to wait two hours.
To Anonymous # 11 (3:20)
Get your facts before you print them “LICH closed their maternity ward for this reason”, LICH’s maternity ward has not, and will not be closed down.
Monmouth Med. Cntr. has had beautiful big birthing rooms for quite a few years already, with private bathroom, cradle, rocking chair.
This is great to hear. I am new to Long Island and was so disappointed when I was told the hospitals had shared maternity rooms. Other I have been to out of state had private rooms so your spouse or other support person can be there with you through the night. I think it’s such a special private moment, I would not want to have a stranger to deal with as well. I know some people don’t mind or don’t know any different but shared rooms, for me, are an uncomfortable and impersonal experience that would be enough for me to hold out for something better or have a home birth. I have to say, for a place with so many resources and so much to do, NY is really behind the times when it come to a lot of things that are progressive and already implemented elsewhere. Not just the issue at hand but I was so surprised to learn how antiquated the practices for certain things are in NY (this, government, technology, statainability, etc. – it’s crazy).