How Eastern Long Island Hospital Came to Be
Eastern Long Island Hospital, the first voluntary hospital in Suffolk County, recently celebrated 119 years of service to North Fork and Shelter Island residents. Its humble beginnings can be traced back to the Victorian mansion donated by the Wood sisters in 1905. The mansion remained a part of the Hospital campus through 1950.
The only remaining structure from the estate, known as The Red House, was used first as a nurses’ residence, and later housed departments including the Opportunity Shop, Laundry, and Community Relations Office. The Eastern Long Island Hospital Association formed committees and a Ladies' Auxiliary to convert the Mansion into a facility for patient care. Funds raised by the Auxiliary enabled the installation of a steam heating system and an x-ray machine by 1916.
This meager beginning was followed by such much-needed additions as a motor ambulance and a modern sewage plant in the 1920s, a delivery room and children’s ward in the 1930s, and a fireproof brick wing in 1939. During the 40s, 50s, and 60s new equipment and programs enhanced the health of the community, funded in large measure by a “Victory Fund Drive” memorializing those who lost their lives in World War II.
Additions in the 1970s included an ICU-CCU, new operating suites, a helipad, ambulatory care departments, and lab facilities. By the 1980s there was ultrasound imaging, a mental health unit, and an alcohol rehab unit. From the 1990s onward, ELIH moved quickly to achieve its current standing as a hospital offering state-of-the-art services in a caring environment, close to home.
Today ELIH is a community hospital that consistently earns high ratings for quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety ratings.
Eastern Long Island Hospital joined Stony Brook Medicine and became Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital in 2019.
