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SCHENECTADY
Hospital to end years of service St. Clare’s assets to be absorbed by Ellis
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    St. Clare’s Hospital will surrender its operating license after 60 years of service and consolidate with Ellis Hospital, using a $50 million state grant announced Thursday.
    Within the same grant announcement, the state gave Schenectady County $3 million to cover planning costs associated with building a new 200-bed nursing facility as a replacement for the aging Glendale Home.
    “It is very sad when an organization as fine as this ends. It’s the end of an era,” said St. Clare’s CEO Bob Perry. “Ellis will take responsibility for all of the care in the community.”
    Ellis currently has no plans to close the St. Clare’s McClellan Street campus, but does plan to take over its property and other assets. When the process is completed, St. Clare’s will cease to exist as a separate, Catholic hospital in Schenectady County, leaving Ellis as the sole provider with three campuses: its own on Nott Street; the St. Clare’s campus; and the former Bellevue Woman’s Hospital campus in Niskayuna.
    The Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, known as the Berger Commission, mandated closure of Bellevue and consolidation of Ellis and St. Clare’s. The recommendations became state law Jan. 1.
    Ellis CEO James Connolly called the pending demise of St. Clare’s “bittersweet. We have great reverence for what they have done and we are very clear in understanding the responsibility that we now take on.”
    Connolly said Ellis plans to continue St. Clare’s mission of providing care to the poor and uninsured. St. Clare’s is a key part of the safety net that provides primary care services to people with little no or health insurance in Schenectady County. Its emergency room is the third busiest in the Capital Region, but more than half of its visitors have little or no coverage.
    Ellis expects to lose money providing care to this vulnerable population, Connolly said, but the hospital will seek to maximize income by reducing redundant services and through other cost-cutting measures, which he did not specify.
    Perry said neither hospital can afford to absorb the others’ patients as of yet, and as such, both will likely keep their emergency rooms open.
    Connolly said Ellis is evaluating staffing for the combined operation and that it anticipates offering employment to many of St. Clare’s staff. He added some job losses are likely, though. Ellis will conduct public meetings to gather information on the reconfiguration of services.
    County Legislator Dr. Brian Gordon said he hopes Ellis includes groups representing doctors, patients and business and community leaders. Gordon wants discussions of “how to rationalize services. It is imperative we make sure this new health system achieves the goal of maintaining our excellent facilities and services. The closed door negotiations should end.”
    John Assini, president of the Schenectady County Medical Society, said St. Clare’s will continue serving the poor if not in name then in spirit. “Their mission isn’t going away because the hospital is the people and hopefully many of these people will remain to provide care to community,” he said.
    Assini said many view the proposed consolidation as in the best interest of the community. “I would hope this will result in a stronger health care system,” he said.
CHANGE COMING
    Connolly did not provide a time frame, but said “We are going to need to move expeditiously. We are concerned about the financial status of all three hospitals and of the other health care institutions in the community. We also need to figure out a better way to integrate with primary care groups in this community.”
    Perry said Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, which sponsors St. Clare’s, and the hospital’s Board of Trustees approved the decision to voluntarily surrender St. Clare’s operating license.
    “The option of continuing independently was not possible for us because of the people we serve,” Perry said. “I congratulate the bishop and the board. They made a difficult decision, but the best shot Schenectady has for efficiency is to come together as one organization.”
    Dr. Arnold Ritterband, chairman of the Schenectady County Committee on Health Care Issues, said the $50 million state grant “will make it much, much easier for the two hospitals to come together under a single governance agreement, which will allow them to function more effectively in many ways and give them more clout when negotiating with HMOs for reimbursement rates.” Paul Drisgula, CEO of Planned Parenthood Mohawk Hudson, said his agency believes the two hospitals have found “the right path” in their efforts to consolidate.
    Planned Parenthood raised concerns about access to abortion and other reproductive services in Schenectady County when the state mandated Bellevue’s closure.
    “We are confident the surviving institution, no matter what facilities it eventually operates, will continue to support the full range of reproductive health services available in our community today in a manner that neither stigmatizes nor isolates the women who seek them,” Drisgula said.
    State Department of Health spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said the state will have to approve any configuration of services to ensure they meet the needs of the community.
    “None of the services will be jeopardized, but Ellis and St. Clare’s may decide that certain kinds of treatment should be provided at one campus and certain services at another,” Hutton said. “We won’t dictate what they have to do.”
    DOH Commissioner Dr. Richard F. Daines said the $50 million grant to the hospitals and the $3 million grant to the county will provide “Schenectady County with the opportunity to move forward in planning and restructuring acute, primary and long-term care services provided to the residents of the county. We look forward to a continuing dialogue with the providers, physicians and consumers in the county as we work toward an integrated health care delivery system to meet the needs of all residents.”
PENSION LIABILITY
    Ellis will use the $50 million grant to fully cover St. Clare’s employee pension obligations, totaling $28.5 million, and to settle St. Clare’s debts, for employee severance and medical malpractice costs and to cover operating costs associated with the McClellan Street campus.
    St. Clare’s unfunded pension obligation was a sticking point toward further consolidation talks between the two hospitals. With the grant, Perry said the state “has recognized the good service of the people here. The pension is unfunded because St. Clare’s cares for the poor and it couldn’t make the contributions.”
    Ellis asked the state to cover the full pension obligation in an application it submitted last summer. The state had promised to award grants by the end of the year and the delays that followed caused concern among the medical staff and others, Assini said.
    “We have been anxious and concerned about the decision and there is an element of relief that a decision has been made,” Assini said.
GLENDALE HOME
    Schenectady County will use the $3 million grant to meet Berger Commission mandates that it downsize the Glendale Home. According to county officials, the state has agreed to allow the county to build a facility with 200 beds — 32 more beds than Berger recommended.
    “We were excluded from the negotiations regarding the hospitals, so we focused our efforts on the nursing home to ensure we that can provide quality nursing home care to our residents, and we won that fight,” said county spokeswoman Theresa Cassiack.
    Berger mandated the county reduce the number of beds at the skilled nursing home from 360 to 168. The county balked at this reduction and put in an application to build a new 240-bed facility. A county official said the county may obtain additional beds beyond the 200 already approved.
    Gordon said the grant will allow the county to “build a new nursing home that will ensure we will be able to maintain nursing care in a state-of-art environment in Schenectady County.”
    Hutton said the latest awards are in addition to previous awards the state gave to assist with the closure of Bellevue Woman’s Hospital and to help Ellis take over provision of women’s health care services at the former Bellevue campus.
    The state also provided $500,000 in grants to two other safety net primary clinics in Schenectady County: Hometown Health and the Schenectady Free Health Clinic.

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St. Clare's Hospital is a 200 bed acute care community hospital established in 1949 by the Albany Catholic Diocese.

It is located in the City of Schenectady on 19.8 acres of land. The campus includes the main hospital facility and two, free-standing and one connecting medical office buildings. The hospital borders Central Park, residential neighborhoods and commercial properties and is easily accessible via CDTA bus lines. Parking is free.

St. Clare's is a major provider of diagnostic, medical, surgical and therapeutic services. The hospital maintains a one-year dental residency training program and a three-year family practice residency. Both programs feature office settings, the Dental Health Center and the Family Health Center, respectively, which are open to the general public.

Quoted from bumblethru

I'd bet that the Catholic founders of St. Clares aren't pleased. Cause now abortions will be able to be performed at that location as well. To my understanding, because it was considered a Catholic hospital, no abortions were done there. But I don't know if they will end up making Bellevue the only location for women's health. Or if it will be available at both locations since Ellis doesn't offer the service.

Quoted from bumblethru

That is true senders. Why don't they have 'men's health center'? Is it that women have more needs or more wants?

And don't beat me up for that statement please! I'm just asking.

Quoted from Sombody

Men seldom get their nails done. Few men get pedicures either-  Get anything waxed lately ?

Chicks keep things a little more  " finely tuned "

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Let St. Clare’s keep its Catholic identity

    On Jan. 21, Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia was the main celebrant and homilist for the National Vigil for Life Opening Mass at the National Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. In his homily, Cardinal Rigali urged us to stop abortions.
    The Catholic identity of the building known as St. Clare’s Hospital will soon be terminated. This is a tragic loss. Schenectady will lose its haven for those who value life on all levels and the consecrated status of the building may very well be compromised.
    Ellis Hospital is a well-respected health care facility and will continue to be so. It does, however, permit abortions — and perhaps they will now be permitted in the building that once valued the fetus — life.
    For many reasons — and being prolife is among the many reasons — St. Clare’s Hospital should not lose its Catholic identity.
    ANGELA M. CIERVO
    Schenectady

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SCHENECTADY
Ellis seeks public input on services
Official wants to discuss future after consolidations
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Ellis Hospital is asking the public for advice in developing Schenectady County’s health care system, according to its chief executive.
    The request for opinions and guidance follows Ellis’ consolidation with St. Clare’s and Bellevue Woman’s hospitals to become the community’s chief medical provider, said CEO James Connolly. The consolidation was ordered following a statewide study of hospital and nursing home services last year under the Berger Commission.
    “We are now in no man’s land with the process. We have a general direction we want to go,” Connolly said. “We are looking at what the system needs to look like for immediate and long-term care.”
    He made his comments Thursday to The Gazette’s editorial board.
    Connolly said Ellis will conduct dozens of community meetings through March to “give people a chance to have their say.” In April, it will ask the state Department of Health for money to put some system components in place, he said.
    The state this spring is offering $250 million in competitive grants to further restructure New York’s health care system. The grants are to strengthen primary care, eliminate excess bed capacity and reduce over-reliance on inpatient care in hospitals and nursing homes, according to the department’s Web site.
    To develop this new health care system, Ellis will work with Schenectady County government, primary care organizations, pharmacies, long-term care facilities, physician groups and other groups, Connolly said.
    “It won’t be a unilateral decision. The community is the customer, but I am charged with organizing a solution based on the resources available,” he said. “We need a centralized system, but it won’t be driven by the Ellis board.”
    He said the Ellis board sees its “responsibility as going beyond our walls. We are the main system, the main safety net provider.”
    As to what the future health care system may look like, Connolly described a scenario where St. Clare’s would handle urgent and acute care through its emergency room and Ellis would become the center for inpatient and speciality services.
    Ellis may relocate its 80-bed long-term care unit to St. Clare’s, allowing Ellis to expand its medical-surgical beds by a like number.
    St. Clare’s would lose its critical care unit and perhaps its maternity services to Bellevue but would keep its intensive care and ambulatory surgery centers, Connolly said.
    Bellevue would remain open for the time being, but Connolly said buildings on the hospital’s Niskayuna campus need repair and it would be cheaper to build a new women’s and children’s health center on the Ellis campus than to spend money to repair them.
    “Our position has always been that women’s health services should be on site next to a full-service hospital,” Connolly said. “We believe we need to build new on the Ellis campus.”
    Connolly said any future health care system in Schenectady County would require medical providers to work together. He would like to develop systems that link these providers so they can communicate immediately with one another about patients and allow them to register people for medical insurance. Both systems would improve primary care and reduce the number of uninsured in the county, he said.

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Connolly said any future health care system in Schenectady County would require medical providers to work together. He would like to develop systems that link these providers so they can communicate immediately with one another about patients and allow them to register people for medical insurance. Both systems would improve primary care and reduce the number of uninsured in the county, he said.

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SCHENECTADY COUNTY
$5M in grants sought for medical mall St. Clare’s center would offer primary care
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

   A group of local medical providers, governmental agencies and human service organizations is hoping to obtain $5 million in state grants to reconfigure primary care services in Schenectady County by establishing a medical mall at St. Clare’s Hospital.
    But at least one member of the group, Hometown Health, believes the task force is moving in the wrong direction.
    The Schenectady Primary Care Restructuring Committee will submit an application — through Ellis Hospital — to the state Department of Health by May 1. The state has set aside $7.5 million for medical institutions in the Capital Region to improve delivery of primary care services.
    State Department of Health spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said the grants are part of $100 million to be awarded statewide this summer. “They cover the cost of developing new offices and renovating existing space,” she said.
    If Ellis receives the full $5 million award, it would transform St. Clare’s on McClellan Street into a regional primary care center, capable of serving thousands of people annually in a one-stop setting, said William P. Spolyar, committee chairman and director of the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. “We are trying to develop a home base for people to receive their primary health care,” he said.
    The committee also plans to develop over the next six to 12 months a long-term strategy for primary care in the community, Spolyar said. The strategy will consider ways to increase the number of primary care physicians in the county and reduce the number of people with little or no insurance, estimated at approximately 20,000.
    “There is a shortage of primary care physicians in the country now and it is not an overstatement to say that three to five years from now people will have problems finding primary care physicians,” Spolyar said. “Also, health insurance will become more expensive and less people will have access to it.”
    The grants are the state’s latest effort to make health care more efficient, cost-effective and affordable. The process began with recommendations more than a year ago from the New York State Commission on Healthcare Facilities in the 21st Century, also known as the Berger Commission, to close nine hospitals and eliminate nearly 3,000 nursing home beds. The recommendations became state law in January 2007.
BERGER OUTGROWTH Ellis and St. Clare’s consolidate services and that Bellevue Woman’s Hospital close. In the wake of this hospital reconfiguration, local officials created the task force to examine ways to improve the county’s primary care system.
    Ellis Hospital CEO James Connolly said “Enhancing the health care delivery system for the entire community involves more than reconfiguring acute care. We are presented with the opportunity and the responsibility to improve the continuum of care — including primary care — with an effort that goes beyond the walls of a hospital, clinic or physician’s office.” Ellis is a member of the task force, which consists of more than 30 medical providers, human service agencies, the county’s medical society and government groups, and will submit the grant to the state.
    The proposed regional primary care center at St. Clare’s would incorporate the hospital’s family practice and dental residency programs as well as its newly established pediatric program as part of the strategy, Spolyar said. In addition, insurance providers would be available there to sign up people for an applicable medical insurance program, such as Child Health Plus or Medicaid.
    Ellis would own the center, but other medical providers in the community would be allowed to lease space to offer their services, Spolyar said. The free clinic, Schenectady County Public Health, which offers a number of clinics, private providers and Hometown Health are among those under consideration as tenants.
    Also under consideration is a plan to develop a network of primary care providers who would go into the community to service people with little or no insurance, Spolyar said. “This would involve reorganizing what exists. We want to make a medical system where you bring the care to people, rather than people come to the care.”
HOMETOWN HEALTH
    Hometown Health, a federal qualified community health center in Schenectady, believes the task force’s primary care model is flawed and could end up costing more money to operate than it will generate.
    Hometown has offered to take over all primary care services in the county and use its federal designation to obtain a higher reimbursement rate for each patient visit than the proposed medical mall could earn. It receives $116 per patient visit while an urgent care center receives $40 for the same patient, said Joe Gambino, spokesmen for Hometown Health.
    “If you are going to give this medical mall its best chance of being self-sustaining, is it going to be better sustained at a reimbursement of $116 or $40?” Gambino asked.
    Hutton said the state’s tentative budget would increase the reimbursement rate to $74 per visit after two years.
    Gambino said Hometown would have to remain under its own governance, that is outside of Ellis’ control, to maintain its federal qualification. “This proposal would make Ellis do what Ellis does best, which is acute care. Primary care would be taken out of their hands,” he said.
    Several medical providers have said privately they are opposed to Hometown Health taking over primary care services in the county.
    The task force has asked local providers for letters of support for its medical mall proposal. Gambino said Hometown will not offer its support until “we have a more clear picture. We want to participate, but what role we should play in it is unclear. The state has already said the safety net providers need to be involved in this project.”
    Gambino called the task force’s medical mall proposal an ambitious project. “The questions that have to be asked are how much will this medical mall cost, where is the money coming from and how do you know it will sustain itself?” he said.
    If the medical mall is up and running and Hometown Health is still here, then there would be two primary care practices in operation in the county, Gambino said. “They would be doing what we are doing without the enhanced rate. If they are doing the same thing we are doing and doing it for three times less, it will be hard to sustain.”

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SCHENECTADY
Hospital merger worries surface
Many don’t want to lose St. Clare’s maternity services
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

When Marlene Michaels got pregnant last year, she chose St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady to provide her maternity services.
The Ballston Lake resident could have traveled to Saratoga Hospital, but decided she liked the type of care provided at St. Clare’s.
    So when she heard Ellis Hospital was considering a transfer of St. Clare’s obstetrics and gynecology wing to the Bellevue Woman’s Hospital, her concern began to grow.
    Two years earlier, she had a bad experience during childbirth at Bellevue and refuses to go back. Now in the seventh month of her pregnancy, she’s trying to fi nd out whether she’ll have time to have her child at St. Clare’s before Ellis begins consolidating services among the three hospitals.
    “That’s my thing,” she said. “There’s no time for me to make my decision, because I will not go back to Bellevue.”
    Michaels was among about three dozen people who attended a community outreach meeting Ellis conducted Tuesday at Schenectady County Community College. Many of those attending the meeting opposed the suggestion that Ellis move St. Clare’s maternity services to Bellevue’s campus in Niskayuna, even if the shift is temporary.
    “They let me do what I wanted to do to have a beautiful childbirth experience,” said Marisa Christiano, who had a child at St. Clare’s in 2005 and who works as a child birth educator at the hospital. “I just don’t think they’ll have that level of care at Bellevue.”
    But James Connolly, the president and chief executive offi cer of Ellis, said no decisions have been solidified yet.
    He said the state Department of Health is likely to approve an expansion of the Ellis license in June, so that the hospital can assume control of St. Clare’s facilities.
    “There have been no final decisions made,” he said. “There are some things that are reasonable conclusions, and we’re going to the community and asking if there is a compelling reason why these things shouldn’t happen.”
    Connolly said moving St. Clare’s maternity services to Bellevue makes logical sense for Ellis because of the economics of the move.
    He said St. Clare’s oversees roughly 700 births annually, while Bellevue delivers about 1,800.
    The New York State Commission on Healthcare Facilities in the 21st Century — also known as the Berger Commission — recommended that Ellis and St. Clare’s consolidate services and that Bellevue Woman’s Hospital close
    In the wake of this hospital reconfiguration, local officials created the task force to examine ways to improve the county’s primary care system.
    Initial concepts for a reorganized health care system under Ellis suggest St. Clare’s would handle urgent and acute care through its emergency room and Ellis would become the center for inpatient and speciality services.
    St. Clare’s would lose its critical care unit and perhaps its maternity services to Bellevue, but would keep its intensive care and ambulatory surgery centers.
    Under this concept, Bellevue Niskayuna campus would remain open to temporarily house the reorganized Ellis maternity services. Meanwhile, the Ellis campus would undergo a massive renovation, including the construction of a new women and children’s health care center.
    Some attending the meeting said moving services to Bellevue would prompt an exodus of patients from the reorganized Ellis. Others feared moving the maternity services to Bellevue would result in a decline in quality of care, because the Niskayuna campus lacks an intensive care unit.
    Connolly said the board of directors for both hospitals must approve a plan of action before any changes are implemented and expects to have a game plan for reorganization of the three hospital campuses no later than October.
    But ultimately, he said there will have to be significant changes to make the system financially viable.
    “It’s the hand of cards we were dealt and is the hand we have to play,” he said. “We have no other choice.”

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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Ellis taking over St. Clare's Hospital on June 16
The Business Review (Albany) - by Barbara Pinckney The Business Review

After months of planning and negotiations, Ellis Hospital will officially take over neighboring St. Clare's Hospital on June 16.

The two Schenectady hospitals were ordered to combine by the Commission on Health Care Facilities for the 21st Century, or Berger Commission. For a time, it appeared both would remain open under a common parent. But in January, after St. Clare's reported a $5 million loss for 2007, it was decided that St. Clare's would surrender its license to Ellis.

Ellis had, in October, absorbed Bellevue Woman's Hospital, which the Berger Commission wanted closed. The Niskayuna hospital now operates as Bellevue Woman's Care Center.

James Connolly, CEO of Ellis, said that all three facilities will remain open for the foreseeable future, as will both emergency rooms. The combined organization will have 455 beds, 168 less than the three hospitals had before.

St. Clare's, at 600 McClellan St., will be known as Ellis' McClellan Campus. That site will offer a variety of outpatient services, including primary and dental care, day surgery, imaging, wound care, rehabilitation and lab services. All critical care, inpatient pediatric care, and medical/surgical inpatient care, including stroke and cardiac care, will be consolidated at Ellis's main campus at 1101 Nott St. Maternity, obstetrics and gynecology services will take place at Bellevue for the next few years, although plans call for the eventual construction of a women and children's center on the Ellis campus.

Connolly said Ellis has been leaving vacant positions open, and expects to offer jobs to all 621 St. Clares employees.

"We are talking no layoffs," he said.

The combined organization will start out with about 3,000 employees. Offers also are being made to all qualified physicians who practiced at St. Clare's but did not have privileges at Ellis.

Connolly said the transition of St. Clare's services to Ellis will begin June 9 and continue through June 20. The state Department of Health, which already has awarded Ellis and St. Clare's $50 million, will provide another $8.7 million to help defray transition costs.

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Why was St. Clare’s Hospital targeted?

    Re Michael Lamendola’s June 5 article [“St. Clare‘s set to begin merging into Ellis”] concerning the merger of the main health care facilities in Schenectady County, it’s understood that the area that is losing population and consolidation is needed.
    I remember three days at Bellevue, hiding the bottles of champagne from the nurses, celebrating the birth of our children. The nurses knew what was happening, but gave us the wink.
    The most disturbing part of the article was the loss of the name St. Clare’s. In a state that is ready to accept gay marriage, the closure of a Catholic hospital is another slap in the face to us that pray to the pope. Why do I think that the closure of St. Clare’s has everything to do with there unwillingness to perform abortions?
    Fortunately, for my wife and me, North Carolina is in our near future, where I know that the Baptists will be more tolerant to Catholics than this state.
    BILL KOUZAN
    Scotia

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SCHENECTADY
St. Clare’s Hospital staff to hold candlelight vigil
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Staff nurses and others will conduct a candlelight vigil Sunday night at St. Clare’s Hospital to mark its end as a Catholic healthcare facility.
    St. Clare’s is surrendering its operating licence Friday and will become a subsidiary of Ellis Hospital. Ellis will rename St. Clare’s the Ellis Hospital McClellan Campus.
    Elisabeth Smith, a St. Clare’s operating room nurse for the last four years, said she is inviting the community to attend the vigil, to begin at 8:30 p.m. in front of St. Clare’s main lobby.
    “The hospital has been in the community for 40 years, and it will no longer be St. Clare’s. We have not been able to speak out about it at all,” Smith said. “It happened so fast and we were not able to say anything.”
    Smith said Rev. Roberta Place, St. Clare’s chaplain will be a guest speaker. Place is leaving St. Clare’s as part of the transition to a nondenominational hospital.
    Smith expects the vigil to last an hour and become emotional. “This will get some closure to the whole situation. People are all upset about it. People are confused and sad,” she said.
    Ellis plans to convert St. Clare’s into an urgent care center that will also offer services that can be obtained during the day. St. Clare’s will no longer function as a hospital open 24 hours, seven days a week. The emergency room, however, will remain open.
    St. Clare’s will transfer its critical care and other inpatient services to Ellis and its maternity services to Bellevue Woman’s Health center. Ellis took over Bellevue last year.
    Smith said staff remain upset that St. Clare’s is losing its maternity services to Bellevue.

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SCHENECTADY
Nurses upset with hospital consolidation
BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter

    Local nurses are calling the current realignment of hospital services in Schenectady County haphazard and are concerned it will affect their jobs and the care they provide to patients, a spokeswoman said, citing the scope and speed of the changes.
    Ellis Hospital is shuffling many of St. Clare’s Hospital medical services to itself and to Bellevue Woman’s Health Center under a mandate by the state Department of Health.
    As part of the transition, Ellis will take over St. Clare’s inpatient services, including its critical care and pediatric services. Bellevue will take over women’s health services, including births. Ellis took over Bellevue last year under the same state mandate.
    St. Clare’s will surrender its operating license Monday and cease to function as a full-service Catholic hospital open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will remain open primarily as an urgent care center offering sameday services, but it will stop accepting inpatients after June 20. St. Clare’s opened in 1949 and is operated by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese.
    Teresa Jewett, a registered nurse at Ellis for 32 years, said, “They have this plan on closing, but they did not have a plan on how to do it. One would think it would be done gradually and publicized. It is not happening that way. It’s been kind of like a mass delivery of services and a merger of seasoned staff into one facility.”
    Jewett also is chairwoman of the local grievance committee of the New York State Nurses Association, the union representing 450 nurses at Ellis.
    Ellis spokeswoman Donna Evans said, “Ellis Hospital has worked for many months to develop an extensive and detailed plan for this transition and a team of committed professionals has implemented it carefully over the past several weeks. The health and safety of our patients is always our top priority and has been at the forefront of every decision we have made. With nearly 250 St. Clare’s nurses joining our team, we are prepared to not just sustain, but enhance, the outstanding care for which both institutions have long been known.
    “We have carefully assembled the right team of people, we have outstanding facilities and technology, and we’re ready to meet all the health care needs of our community at Ellis, at our new McClellan Campus [St. Clare’s] and at Bellevue. Our community expects and deserves nothing less and their expectations will be exceeded,” Evans’ statement concluded.
    Dr. Brian Gordon, a county legislator and orthopedic surgeon, had no comment on the issue. Attempts to reach Dr. John Assini, president of the Schenectady County Medical Society, were unsuccessful.
    State Nurses Association spokesman Mark Genovese said the “main concern of the nurses at Ellis and St. Clare’s is that the surrounding community that uses [St. Clare’s] has not been given sufficient notice about the impending closing. They are worried about the lack of access to care for the surrounding neighborhoods.”
    He said nurses also are concerned that when the transition is complete, Ellis will not be properly staffed to handle the increased workload.
STAFFING QUESTIONS
    Jewett said Ellis is understaffed already but the new nurses will not be used to increase staff levels on the floors. The St. Clare’s nurses are being assigned to new beds that Ellis is opening in the C-wing, even though Ellis is experiencing increased patient loads on the floors and in its emergency room.
    “We still remain below core staffing even with the new staff,” Jewett said. “Anytime you are understaffed, quality of care is always jeopardized. You want people to feel secure, and they are safe, but the nurse is burning herself out running around.”
    The association bought an advertisement in Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Gazette. The ad asked whether the merger was “Leaving the community behind?”
    It also stated the association was there for St. Clare’s nurses. Registered nurses at St. Clare’s are not unionized, but as part of the transition, they have the option to join the SNA. More than 100 St. Clare’s nurses have accepted job offers from Ellis.
    Bellevue nurses also had the option to join the SNA; many haven’t, Jewett said. “There is a lot of misinformation there,” she said.