Good Samaritan Hospital Provides Stepped-Up Emergency Care in Suffern

By Sarah Morgenstern

When emergencies strike, G-d forbid, Rockland County residents now can head to Good Samaritan Hospital at 255 Lafayette Ave., in Suffern. 

The state’s Department of Health (DOH) has announced the hospital’s designation as a Level III Adult Trauma Center.

The hospital’s trauma services team is comprised of board-certified surgeons and emergency medicine physicians work together with physicians who specialize in orthopedics, vascular, thoracic, and neurosurgery.

In addition, as a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, Good Samaritan Hospital has access to the Level I adult and pediatric trauma services at Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital for the most complex trauma cases, explained Michael Schwartz, MD, the chief of surgery at Good Samaritan.

“Our intra-network link to these hospitals affords us the opportunity to consult with our Level I trauma service colleagues on care, plus offer seamless patient transfer to either facility, should the need arise," Dr. Schwartz said.

The convenient and local option for emergency care comes just as the 2020 US Census Bureau reported that trauma cases in Hudson Valley are on the rise: increasing by 8.5% in the last ten years. 

Adrienne Wasserman, MD, MPH, the medical director of Good Samaritan's Emergency Department, explained that the nearby high-traffic roadways and many spaces highly populated by sports enthusiasts can both result in increased trauma cases.

"We anticipate that demand for trauma services in our area will continue to grow and our multidisciplinary team of emergency medicine experts and on-call specialists expect to care for more than 600 trauma patients annually,” said Frank Aversano, Jr, MD, the medical director of Good Samaritan Hospital's Level III Adult Trauma Center. 

“This is a critical new lifeline in our community," he added.