Officials at St. John”™s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers have rallied community support from about 17,500 residents for the hospital”™s plan to expand and restructure its severely overcrowded emergency department.
The expansion and redesign is estimated to cost $15 million. The hospital is seeking a $10 million Vital Access Provider grant from the state Department of Health for the project at St. John”™s Andrus Pavilion at 967 N. Broadway.
The state grant program provides temporary Medicaid rate adjustments to allow health care providers in underserved areas to reconfigure business strategies and clinical services to better meet community health care needs. Health department officials last fall said $61.6 million in vital access provider and safety net funding had not yet been allocated in the state”™s 2011-2012 fiscal year that ends March 31.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s executive budget includes $182 million in funding for the vital access and short-term safety net programs in 2013 and $153 million in the 2014 fiscal year.
Ronald J. Corti, president and CEO of St. John”™s Riverside Hospital, stated in a press release its emergency room treats 38,600 visitors annually “and was only built to accommodate 25,000 a year. At this rate of growth, we project a need for the facility to handle 50,000 ER visits.”
The ER”™s chronic overcrowding has grown more severe in the last decade with the closings of Yonkers General Hospital, St, Agnes Hospital in White Plains and United Hospital in Port Chester, according to St. John”™s officials. Those Westchester County hospitals treated a total of about 40,000 emergency patients annually.
The expansion would include construction of 29 treatment areas, compared with 19 currently available. Six urgent care stations would allow St. John”™s to provide the community care needed with a shortage of primary care physicians in the area and relieve pressure on acute care treatment areas. The hospital would add six new observation beds to treat patients without admitting them and a new rapid assessment zone that would include two triage areas and one testing area. The larger, redesigned emergency department would have separate patient and ambulance entrances.
St. John”™s officials estimated the project would create 100 to 200 health care and temporary construction jobs. The third largest health care employer in Westchester and the largest private employer in Yonkers, St. John”™s Riverside employs nearly 2,500 workers.
Hospital officials said their call for community support for the project drew signatures on letters or an online petition from 17,500 residents. One supporter, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano, in a press release said the St. John”™s”™ health network “plays a vital role in the health of Yonkers residents as well as the economic well-being” of the city.
