Health Quest, the Hudson Valley hospital system, is seeking bankruptcy court and state approval of its purchase offer for St. Francis Hospital and Health Center, the Poughkeepsie institution that filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday.
St. Francis has obtained interim financing to continue to operate during the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. St. Francis officials in a press release stressed the hospital will continue to deliver medical and health care services to patients during that period.
If the proposed acquisition by a Health Quest entity is approved by a federal bankruptcy judge and the state Department of Health, Saint Francis will not continue as a separate organization. The Health Quest board of directors recently approved an offer to purchase most of the assets of St. Francis while in bankruptcy.
Health Quest CEO Luke McGuinness in the announcement said the proposed deal “is in the best long-term interest of health care consumers in our region. We all share the same goal of enhancing the quality and range of care provided to the patients in our community, and this proposal will meet that goal.”
Health Quest would maintain services that St. Francis has provided, including behavioral health, chemical dependency treatment and detoxification programs, early childhood intervention and trauma services. Health Quest officials said preserving and enhancing access to quality care in those specialized services is the primary reason why it made its purchase offer. Â The nonprofit organization “believes strongly that those health care needs should be met locally,” said Robert R. Dyson, Health Quest board chairman.
Headquartered in Lagrangeville, the Health Quest system includes Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel and Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie in addition to several medical practice and urgent care centers and specialty care affiliates serving residents of northern Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Columbia counties.
