South Nassau will be providing information and tools for the public to talk about their wishes with family, friends and healthcare providers, and execute written advance directives.

1. New From:
For Immediate Release April 5, 2013
Contact: Damian Becker, Manager of Media Relations
(516) 377-5370
National Healthcare Decisions Day Set for April 16
Oceanside, NY – South Nassau Communities Hospital, along with other national, state and community
organizations, is part of a massive effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making—
an effort that has culminated in the formal designation of April 16 as National Healthcare Decisions Day
(NHDD).
As a participating organization, South Nassau is providing information and tools for the public to talk
about their wishes with family, friends and healthcare providers, and execute written advance directives
(healthcare power of attorney and living will) in accordance with New York state laws. These resources are
also available at www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org.
From 10 AM to 3 PM in South Nassau’s atrium there will be a large exhibit hosted by healthcare
decision specialists offering free information to the public about advance care planning and advance directive
forms.
“As a result of National Healthcare Decisions Day, many more people in our community can be
expected to have thoughtful conversations about their healthcare decisions and complete reliable advance
directives to make their wishes known,” said Kathi Morse, administrator, Palliative Care & Geriatric Services.
“Fewer families and healthcare providers will have to struggle with making difficult healthcare decisions in the
absence of guidance from the patient, and healthcare providers and facilities will be better equipped to address
advance healthcare planning issues before a crisis and be better able to honor patient wishes when the time
comes to do so.”
South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than
900 physicians and 3,000 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit
teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain
management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers,
South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty and is the only hospital on Long Island with the
Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® Perfexion radiosurgery technologies. South Nassau is a designated Stroke
Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the

2. American College of Surgeons and is recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American
Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.
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