Good Samaritan Hospital Expands its Operations

Good Samaritan Hospital is making some changes. After a year of expansions and new initiatives, Good Samaritan is preparing to enter 2024 better equipped than ever, with upgrades to their facilities combined with brand new services, allowing the hospital to offer a higher level of support for the residents of Rockland County.

When speaking with RCT, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Andrew Pickens and Chief Clinical Officer Michele Muldoon explained that the new changes will enable Good Samaritan to upgrade both the quality of the care they provide and the number of patients they are able to treat.

Of special note was the new Cardiac Catheterization Lab, which has improved the hospital’s ability to accurately diagnose heart patients’ conditions and also provide less invasive treatments and care to elderly or at-risk patients.

“It’s a comprehensive program that helps with screening as well as open heart surgery,” said CCO Muldoon. “We are able to visualize coronary arteries and also manage electrical disturbances in the heart. We have also started a structural heart program, which allows us to perform new treatments, including the Watchman Procedure.”

The revolutionary technique, which is used to treat patients with atrial fibrillation (a rapid or irregular heart beat) negates the need for anticoagulation drugs which come with significant side effects.

The upgraded facility also allows Good Samaritan surgeons to perform transcatheter aortic valve replacements (TAVR), which require less risk and allow for a shorter recovery than the more traditional method.

“In the past, you would have to have open heart surgery for a valve to be repaired, but now we can do it through an artery procedure,” explained CCO Muldoon. “We now have patients that are staying in our hospital for a single day after a valve procedure. We previously had patients undergo a valve replacement and remain here post op for a week. We are in a phase of this work that we couldn’t have imagined even ten years ago.”

In addition to the Catheterization Lab, Good Samaritan has also undergone a dramatic renovation and expansion of its Maternity Department.

“It is one of our pride and joys” said Dr. Pickens, who stated that an average of 3,500 babies are delivered in the hospital annually. The hospital’s leadership is optimistic that newly renovated Labor and Maternity rooms will provide a more home-like, comfortable location for expecting mothers and allow Good Samaritan to further assist in the delivery of healthy babies.

In conjunction with upgrades to their ability to treat chronic conditions and deliver babies, Good Samaritan has also taken steps to enter 2024 better equipped than ever to treat physical injuries. Recently, Good Samaritan was designated by New York State as a Level III Trauma Center, a designation reserved for hospitals that have demonstrated an ability to provide prompt assessment, resuscitation, surgery, intensive care and stabilization of injured patients and emergency operations.

Qualifications include the ability to provide 24-hour immediate coverage by emergency medicine physicians and immediate availability of general surgeons and anesthesiologists.

Good Samaritan has also recruited an additional hematologist/ oncologist to further support the work of the Bobbi Lewis Cancer Program. Accredited as a Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons—the Bobbi Lewis program has organized a roster of oncologists, surgeons and radiologists to treat a wide variety of cancer diagnoses, and allow Rockland residents to receive industry standard care without traveling far.

While all of these specialized improvements can and will allow Good Samaritan to provide a higher level of health care, the hospital’s representatives are aligned with the DOH in identifying the top threats to the health of our county. Chronic illness and communicable diseases were identified by the hospitals community needs assessment as top priorities,” according to CCO Muldoon.

COVID-19 and Measles in particular have had a lasting negative effect on the county’s overall health. Both medical professionals agreed that the hospital’s work to vaccinate the population is a top priority and encouraged all Rockland residents to participate in the hospital’s comprehensive vaccine programs.