Out in Front

For a quarter century, the two hospitals providing care to South Fork residents, in Southampton and Riverhead, have been on parallel paths that sometimes, in their winding, briefly intersected, though more often raced each other to get to higher ground. That race is far from over, but a clear leader has emerged.

There was a time, not long ago, when the fates of the two hospitals were intertwined; along with Eastern Long Island Hospital in Greenport, they made up a mini collective of independent facilities as New York State was pushing small hospitals to link up with larger health conglomerates. Ultimately, though, the three-hospital group splintered, with Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead joining Northwell Health. Southampton and Greenport both went with Stony Brook Medicine instead.

Both Peconic Bay Medical Center and Stony Brook Southampton Hospital have ambitious plans that sometimes conflict. A decade ago, Andy Mitchell, then the CEO of the Riverhead hospital, made clear an image of rapid growth into a regional health care provider for the entire East End — and he quickly began investing in expansion. Southampton officials began discussing a state-of-the-art teaching hospital in Shinnecock Hills that would replace the aging campus in Southampton Village.

In 2023, taking stock, PBMC is surging forward under Mitchell’s successor, Dr. Amy Loeb, with a June 2 announcement of a $92 million expansion plan focused on trauma care as well as a new Center for Women and Infants, taking Mitchell’s vision for a regional hospital that much further forward. It’s already raised more than half the private donations it needs.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, meanwhile, has an even bigger proposal, the $350 million new facility on the Stony Brook Southampton college campus — but they will now have to raise that sizable amount without a pair of broad shoulders helping with the lift.

Robert Chaloner’s arrival in 2006 came at a low point for the hospital, and he immediately made it a turning point. His steady, forward-thinking leadership guided the hospital through a stormy stretch, and it landed in a plum position, linked with Suffolk County’s biggest health care institution. He not only saved a hospital on the brink, he urged the kind of forward thinking that makes a $350 million project possible, not to mention a smaller but even more essential new emergency room facility serving East Hampton.

And now he’s gone. Chaloner first agreed, in March, to step away from duties as the hospital’s chief administrative officer to focus on a role leading the fundraising effort for the new hospital. Just three months later, he’s heading to Wisconsin to take over a new hospital leadership role — which certainly puts a new spin on the entire episode.

Stony Brook Southampton Hospital has stumbled at a time when it could ill afford to. There is a leadership vacuum at a time when its neighbor to the north has already added a Level III trauma center and a heart center, and now aims to be the maternity capital of the East End. “We expect this upcoming expansion to be our most substantial work yet,” Loeb said at the June 2 announcement. Stony Brook has bigger goals, but they now seem further away than before.

The race for donations is part of the battle, and it’s notable that one major donor to PBMC has deep Westhampton Beach roots. Monied property owners in western Southampton Town are going to be important to Stony Brook Southampton’s future, but they seem to already be voting with their checkbooks.

The East End has room for more than one major health care facility — in fact, the end game cannot be a “winner take all” outcome. Still, in a longtime rivalry, one institution will always be the overachiever, and one will be the underdog. For many years, the marathon was very much up for grabs. Today, it looks like one competitor is hitting its stride, while the other has lost a shoe.