The New York State Department of Health has ordered Stony Brook University Hospital to immediately halt its pediatric cardiac surgery and catherization programs, citing an “imminent danger to the health and safety” of patients, Newsday reported today.

The order is in effect until further notice. The hospital, which is a unit of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, may challenge the order in a hearing set for September 28, a health department spokesman said.

The program has been under health-department scrutiny since 1999 after the deaths of three children that year. The department said on Monday that it was taking action now because the program “lacks a full-time physician on-site to monitor and care for patients post-operatively, does not have an experienced surgical team to ensure quality of care, and fails to provide adequate coverage when the primary surgeon is not available,” the newspaper reported.

Richard Fine, dean of the university’s School of Medicine, expressed confidence in the program’s quality of care and said he looked forward to dealing with the department’s concerns.