Oceanside School District donates used iPads to Mount Sinai South Nassau

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Diane Provvido, Oceanside School District’s assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction and research, delivered 50 iPads to Mount Sinai South Nassau this morning.

The district donated the used iPads, which could no longer run its educational software, so that patients at the Oceanside hospital could video call their family members while there is a no-visitor policy due to Covid-19.

“Some patients don’t have tech to contact their families or are too sick to initiate that,” said Donna Kraus, the district’s public information officer, “so we decided this would be a good use of this technology that is otherwise obsolete.”

Hospital staff will manage the iPads, which will be shared among the entire facility. Communicating with loved ones will help patients greatly, said Joe Calderone, the hospital’s senior vice president of corporate communications and development.

“Normally, patients here are accustomed to essentially 24-hour visiting, which is extremely helpful emotionally and in terms of getting better,” he noted. “Now that we don't have that, the iPads are helping us to fill that communication void between the patients and their families and friends.”

He expressed gratitude for the efforts of the school district to get the iPads to the hospital.

Mount Sinai South Nassau had 487 patients as of Thursday afternoon, about 383 of them coronavirus patients. This is a surge from the typical 343 beds the hospital typically staffs for, Calderone said.

The surge has caused financial strain on the hospital, which is looking to purchase more iPads for patient use and telemedicine. To donate to Mount Sinai South Nassau, visit southnassau.org/sn/donate-online1.