Local couple donates $250K to advance Center for Women and Infants
Peconic Bay Medical Center has received a $250,000 donation from local philanthropists Robert and Patricia Friemann to help support the hospital establish the region’s first Center for Women and Infants.
The donation will help the Riverhead hospital get closer to its fundraising goal as the design process is underway with expectations to open the Center for Women and Infants in late 2025.
“Rob Friemann has been a driving force for empowering the North Fork community for many years, and we are incredibly grateful to him and his wife Pattie for seeing our vision as a key contributor to community prosperity for current residents and for generations to come,” Peconic Bay Medical Center Executive Director Amy Loeb said in a written statement. “Their generosity brings us closer to establishing the East End’s Center for Women and Infants, which will be a beacon of health and support for families in our community. This significant contribution aligns with our commitment to providing the highest standard of care to our patients and making the highest level of advanced health care available and accessible for all.”
The Center for Women and Infants will feature new private rooms and make much-needed comprehensive women’s health services accessible to residents throughout eastern Suffolk County, according to the statement. It will also enable PBMC to increase its level of care for women at all stages of life, including a more advanced level of breast health, urogynecology and teleneonatology and a goal to develop a Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
“The Peconic Bay Medical Center’s impressive vision and track record is extremely exciting for the North Fork community, especially considering its current track record of success and how much the hospital has grown in just a short period of time,” Rob Friemann said in the statement. “Pattie and I are honored to contribute to the realization of this crucial initiative. I believe in the importance of making high-quality healthcare for women more accessible throughout our community. For too long, my family and my neighbors have been forced to drive long distances for treatment or ignore our health care out of convenience. With the investments that Amy and Peconic Bay Medical Center have already implemented and the tangible services they are in the process of bringing to the hospital, world-class medical care is now right in our backyards.”
The donation comes on the heels of Peconic Bay Medical Center being recognized by the national hospital rating agency Healthgrades as a Five-Star hospital in several sectors, according to the statement. The hospital also received three Awards of Excellence for Coronary Intervention, Gastrointestinal Care and Pulmonary Care.
Along with these awards, PBMC was also listed among the Top Ten Percent in the Nation for coronary interventional procedures, overall pulmonary care, GI medical treatment and overall GI services as well. Peconic Bay Medical Center was also one of only seven Long Island hospitals to receive an A safety rating by Leapfrog in its Fall 2023 report.
