Suffolk Closeup - Can Shuttered Foley Facility Help In Covid-19 Pandemic

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

The John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility in Yaphank—in the middle of Suffolk County—sits there “still empty” and, says Rob Colarco, presiding officer of the Suffolk County Legislature, should “in response to the coronavirus crisis” be put to use. 

The facility was closed and sold—in a controversial sale by Suffolk County—to Long Island Community Hospital in 2016 for $15 million.

Mr. Colarco noted that when the county built the facility in 1995 “each room had oxygen set up directly to go into the rooms.” Oxygen is critical for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for $50 million is constructing on an emergency basis a 1,000-bed “temporary” hospital, nearly all of it involving tents, on the campus of Stony Brook University in response to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Suffolk.

The Foley facility constitutes “a permanent structure” available for long-term use, says Mr. Colarco of Patchogue. He said in an interview last week that it would not be a “turn-key” transition to get the Foley facility ready, but “the basic infrastructure” of the five-story facility has been “maintained. 

U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin of Shirley and Richard T. Margulis, president and CEO of Long Island Community Hospital are also urging the Foley facility’s use. 

Mr. Zeldin and Mr. Margulis are requesting New York State “consider utilizing the currently underutilized” facility “which could accommodate up to 500 beds, as a location to increase hospital bed capacity on Long Island,” according to a statement from the office of Mr. Zeldin, whose lst C.D. includes all of Brookhaven Town, the five East End towns and much of Smithtown.

Mr. Zeldin said in the statement: “One of the greatest challenges the continued outbreak of coronavirus poses is the strain it puts on our communities’ healthcare system and possible overwhelming of our local hospitals. We must utilize every resource available to expand our hospital bed capacity, and John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Home may be a critical untapped resource.”

Mr. Margulis said: “During this unprecedented critical time in healthcare and its impact on our community, we have explored every possible option for helping to expand bed capacity limitations. We would like to use our asset of the former John J. Foley Nursing Home to create additional hospital bed space to help care for patients….We need to join together and do whatever we can to fight this disease and support our community.”

Long Island Community Hospital, in East Patchogue, is the only hospital in Suffolk remaining independent, “unaffiliated” with a hospital network such as Stony Brook Medicine or Northwell Health. “It’s very hard for a small community hospital to stay unaffiliated,” said Mr. Colarco. 

The hospital (renamed in 2018 from Brookhaven Memorial Hospital) told the county before the sale that it planned to offer hemodialysis, drug rehabilitation and other services at the 181,749-square foot building. 

The Foley facility was originally the site of the Suffolk County Home and Infirmary and, before that, the Suffolk County Alms-House—a home for Suffolk poor which opened in 1870 and featured a 170-acre farm on which they grew food. The farm continues as the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center managed since 1974 by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County.

In 1975, it looked like the Suffolk County Home and Infirmary would be shut down after the state Department of Health found violations in a building inspection, so the county Department of Health Services said it should be closed. But then Suffolk County Executive John V. N. Klein and the Suffolk Legislature joined to appropriate money for repairs. “Suffolk Home and Infirmary Is Saved,” was the The New York Times headline.

Then, two decades later, a new facility—named for ex-Legislator John J. Foley of Blue Point, long strongly committed to health care—was built for $42 million. But County Executives Steve Levy and his successor, Steve Bellone, thereafter pushed to sell it for financial reasons. 

Mr. Bellone said in 2013 that county taxpayers couldn’t afford the $1 million a month subsidy he said the Foley facility cost. There was intense opposition led by then Legislators Kate Browning of Shirley and John Kennedy of Nesconset, now county comptroller, and also a lawsuit. There was great concern for the very needy patients served by Foley. The sale first involved purchase by a Bronx-based nursing home operator for $36 million—later reduced to $20 million—but the operator withdrew the offer. So, the facility was closed and sold to what was then called Brookhaven Memorial Hospital. 

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.