Wyckoff wins court approval on hospitals bid

After months of uncertainty revolving around the future of two Queens hospitals, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center's affiliate, Caritas Health Care Planning, Inc. has received approval to purchase St. John's Queens Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, two St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center affiliates.
On Monday, June 26, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the sale motion allowing Wyckoff to begin the transition process by filing the proper paperwork with the State Department of Health.
&#8220We are confident that Wyckoff has the vision, energy, and management skills to successfully stabilize and grow the two Queens hospitals as it has done at its own facility,” said Guy Sansone, President and CEO of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers.
Wyckoff officials have already started plans for the transition process and discussed strengthening billing and collection capabilities at both hospitals and modeling the facilities after the community teaching hospital like the one currently at Wyckoff.
&#8220We are committed to working with Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, the staffs of St. John's Queens and Mary Immaculate Hospitals, the State Health Department and our elected officials to implement a successful turnaround at these two facilities,” said Dominick J. Gio, President and CEO of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.
In addition, Wyckoff has said publicly that it plans to retain the Catholic identities of the two institutions.
Borough President Helen Marshall said she was encouraged to hear the news about Wyckoff because of the medical crisis the borough is currently in with the lack of adequate services available to patients.
&#8220Since we are suffering already from a hemorrhaging of hospital beds in Queens, we cannot afford to lose any more,” Marshall said. &#8220We have been traditionally under-bedded in this borough of more than 2.2 million residents and will fight any effort to reduce the number of beds anywhere in the county.”
It is expected that the process will take several months before being approved by the State Department of Health with a target date sometime in the late fall of 2007, according to St. Vincent's spokesperson Michael Fagan.
&#8220This week was great news; now we just have to move through this next process,” Fagan said, adding that when the process finishes it will &#8220be cause for celebration.”