October 2008 - On October 9, 2008 the Suffolk Community Council presented St. Charles Hospital with an Accessibility Excellence award for their outstanding accessibility in testing facilities for people with disabilities.

St. Charles Hospital was the first of the twelve hospitals on Long Island to undergo an accessibility survey of medical testing by the Suffolk County Community Council and will now be used as a model hospital for accessibility purposes.

“Our Hospital Survey was launched to see which facilities can handle specific tests for people with different disabilities.” said Judy Pannullo, Executive Director of the Suffolk Community Council. “We were delighted to learn how extremely accessible and accommodating St Charles is and we wanted to recognize their good work by presenting them with our Accessibility Excellence Award”. The thorough survey took 3 hours to complete.

The goal of the Network is to make all health care environments accessible, to the greatest extent possible for everyone that uses them, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. In the coming months, all hospitals in Suffolk County will undergo a survey by the Suffolk County Community Council.

Having facilities such as St Charles that can do medical testing in such an accommodating way will go a long way in helping patients with all their medical needs.