Community Hospital’s heart still beats

Nearly eight months after a state commission recommended its closure, the final fate of Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry has yet to be determined.
Jim Foy, president of the Riverside Health Care System, to which Community Hospital belongs, said last week there is “nothing yet” to report on the hospital”™s possible closure.
Community Hospital was one of nine facilities statewide recommended for closure by the Commission for Health Care in the 21st Century, which issued a report of the state”™s health-care system late last year.
The commission, headed by investment banker Stephen Berger, was formed by former Gov. George Pataki in 2005 with a mandate to “right size” the state”™s health-care system, including nursing homes.
Pataki approved the report shortly before he left office, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer when he initially took office said he agreed with the report”™s findings.
The “Berger Commission,” as it became known, recommended closing Community Hospital in Dobbs Ferry, as well as replacing 247 skilled nursing home beds with an assisted-living program at Andrus-on-Hudson in Hastings-on-Hudson.
The commission also recommended that Westchester Medical Center spin off its Maria Fareri Children”™s Hospital as an independent entity, an idea that has been bandied about in the past.
Foy did say last week that the hospital has remained in talks with the state Department of Health regarding a plan to restructure the hospital, rather than close it.
Community Hospital recently applied for funds to restructure under phase 4 of the Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEALNY) capital grant program.
Also, state Sen. Andre Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) offered an amendment on a bill introduced to save another hospital on the Berger Commission”™s closure list to save Community Hospital from closing.
The bill, introduced by Senate Republicans, would exempt Bellevue Women”™s Hospital of Niskayuna, Schenectady County, from following the commission”™s statewide restructuring plan.
Stewart-Cousins”™ amendment also to exempt Community Hospital was voted down in the Republican-controlled Senate.
“I”™ve been working all year to bring needed reforms to New York”™s health-care system,” said Stewart-Cousins in a statement at the time. “What we have in Dobbs Ferry is a hospital that”™s functioning, profitable and much loved in the community.”
Her predecessor, Republican former state Sen. Nick Spano, also called for the Dobbs Ferry facility to remain open while he was in office.
It has been a contentious fight for Community Hospital and the other health-care facilities recommended for closure since the report was issued.
Earlier this year, Community Hospital joined several of those facilities in filing a lawsuit seeking to overturn the commissions ruling. The lawsuit claimed the commission held “a secret, closed-door meeting” in violation of the state Open Meetings Law when deliberating on its recommendations.
The group New York Lawyers in the Public Interest had also sued to block the closing of Community Hospital and the eight other hospitals.