NYU Langone Health’s plan to build a new hospital in Melville reflects intense competition among health systems for Long Island patients that could improve care regionwide, and demonstrates how an aging population will have increasingly complex health care needs, experts say.
Manhattan-based NYU Langone last month announced it would spend billions of dollars to construct a hospital of more than a million square feet, with roughly 500 beds, just off Route 110 about a mile south of the Long Island Expressway. It would be the first new hospital on Long Island since 1980.
The aim is to offer services in Melville that now may only be available in Manhattan, sparing Long Islanders long trips into the city, and funneling patients already seeing doctors in NYU Langone’s expanding Nassau and Suffolk outpatient network to the new facility. Although the hospital still needs regulatory approval, and many details haven’t been disclosed, it would alter an ever-changing healthcare landscape on Long Island. The impact on patient costs — if any — is still uncertain, experts say…
Cases for higher, or lower, prices
Older hospitals may buy expensive new equipment and other technology to better compete, in some cases leading to duplication of services, said Soumitra Bhuyan, executive director of health administration programs at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Combined with NYU Langone’s investment in the new hospital, that could help push up prices for patients — although competition among hospitals also could potentially help lower prices, he said.
In addition, an academic medical center like the proposed Melville hospital generally charges more than community hospitals, he said.
Studies show that initial hospitalization costs for academic medical centers are higher, although other research indicates that, long-term, costs can be lower, possibly because of fewer complications after an initial hospital stay at an academic medical center…
A new academic medical center with the most modern research facilities likely will attract top-notch researchers and bring more clinical trials to Long Island, allowing more patients with diseases like cancer to access experimental and potentially life-saving treatments without traveling to Manhattan, Bhuyan said…
‘Strategic business move’
The new hospital faces multiple regulatory hurdles, including state officials looking at whether there would be excessive duplication of equipment and services among hospitals, Darwell said.
Despite the massive cost to build a new hospital, in the end, Bhuyan said, the Melville site “is a very strategic business move.”
Demand for health care on Long Island will continue to increase, he said.