St. Josephs Hospital Closure Saga Continues

As the gradual phase-out and eventual closure of St. Josephs Hospital looms, a date has been set for the shut down of inpatient medical surgical services at the facility. Following the submission of a closure plan in June by Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers (SVCMC), the health care system that owns St. Josephs, the Department of Health (DOH) has approved the shut down, set for August 27, much to the chagrin of community members and leaders.
"We knew from the outset that it would be an uphill fight and we did all we could, collectively and individually, to save St. Josephs," said Councilman James Gennaro. "But the state has made its decision, and I will now do everything I can to inform the community and monitor the transfer."
"The essential motivation was a system that was financially challenged," said Pat Wardell, executive director of St. Josephs. "We tried to rehabilitate the facility with no success; our only alternative was to go after a closure plan, and we wanted to do this as expeditiously as possible once we got the approval."
According to Wardell, SVCMC will scale down the critical care unit to a bare minimum of patients by August 2.
Also closing are operating rooms and the emergency department.
Beginning July 26, the hospital, which treats approximately 3,000 patients per year, will begin to curtail triage admissions and no longer accept patients transported via ambulance. And although the emergency department will remain fully functional, patients will be stabilized and transferred to nearby hospitals.
Approximately one month later, inpatient medical surgical services and the acute psychiatry unit will close. At the same time, the emergency department will cease operations and only provisionally providing outpatient ambulatory services.
According to SVCMC, the departments and services will be relocated to either of the other two hospitals in the system Mary Immaculate Hospital (MIH) or St. Johns Queens Hospital.
To handle the new influx of patients, a separate "St. Josephs Unit" is being developed at MIH to house a medical/surgical unit, and ambulatory surgery services will be split between the two facilities.
Other services, including ambulatory care and the acute psychiatric unit, will be reinstituted at different sites once they have been procured.
In the interim, SVCMC has been working in conjunction with staff, union representatives (particularly 1199), elected officials and community advisory boards to make the transition as smooth as possible. The health care system has also held open houses in order to replace and retrain current staff for new positions in other SVCMC facilities.
"I want to continue to help the employees of St. Josephs," said Gennaro. "I want to make sure that everyone gets a safe landing in other positions."
As for the property, SVCMC has obtained the services of Massey Knakal Realty in order to sell the lot. Wardell assured The Queens Courier that community representatives will be informed as to the sale.
Gennaro hopes to keep a close eye on the disposition of the property as well.