Perception and misperception can make or break any endeavor. Area hospitals like Good Samaritan in Suffern are trying to change in the minds of residents who see New York City as the only place where quality health care is available.
Good Samaritan”™s $17 million cardiovascular institute headed by a top cardiac surgeon, Dr. Edward Lundy, has been open for business successfully for two years. What it needs now is to build community awareness that quality care is available right in the Hudson Valley, said Bon Secours Charity Health System”™s new CEO Phillip Patterson, speaking to Rockland Business Association members on Nov. 19.
Active International”™s Cardiovascular Institute opened at Good Samaritan in 2007. Bringing in Lundy from Lancaster Hospital in Pennsylvania, Bon Secours demonstrated it was ready and able to provide a quality alternative for cardiac patients who were traveling outside the area to get services. To date, the facility has performed 750 open heart surgeries, 6,000 cardiac catheterizations and more than 2,000 angioplasties.
“Before we opened, there was a 130-mile corridor where this kind of care was not available,” said Patterson. “Cardio care is an important service we are able to provide to the community. Before we opened, people were either traveling outside the area or out of state or not getting care at all. This pushed the statistical number of deaths to unacceptable levels.”
Active International”™s Cardiovascular Institute is rated among the top five in the nation by Health Grades, said Patterson. “Health Grades also rated Good Samaritan in the top 5 percent in the country for its obstetrics program for the past five consecutive years and in the top 5 percent for its surgical program for the last three consecutive years,” said Patterson, who became Bon Secours”™ CEO in April. He also acts as executive vice president and administrator for its Suffern campus.
Patterson acknowledged the hospital”™s fiscal woes back from 2008, when it was in a $30 million hole. “It brought in some specialists, and some hard decisions that were not popular had to be made,” he said. “Today, we have made a small profit this year as a system and are projecting a $6.5 million surplus at the end of next year.”
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Patterson said the hospital”™s 2,400 employees, with an annual payroll of $216 million, translate into $400,000 a month spent on goods and services in the community. “The hospital purchases $154 million in goods and services each year,” said Patterson. “Medical supplies, electricity, food for patients and staff, much of it purchased locally, including our bill from Rockland Bakery.”
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Patterson praised the hospital”™s services, saying that despite losses it sustained in 2008, Bon Secours has not shirked from capital improvement projects at Good Samaritan. It is moving forward with a $7.3 million upgrade to its emergency room as well as a $2.4 million renovation for the lobby, cafeteria, and physicians”™ lounge. Another $3 million in office space will be built in its ambulatory surgery building to bring back doctors who have left New York”™s borders.
“Physicians went to New Jersey to build ambulatory surgery centers because there is not as much red tape as there is here in New York,” said Patterson. “The outward migration is significant. Over the last two years, we have seen 4,000 outpatient surgeries leave our campus and go to New Jersey.
“The drawback they did not foresee was getting paid for in-network and out-of-network services,” said Patterson. To bring back doctors who have patients in New York, the hospital is fast-tracking its ambulatory offices and anticipates having them up and running in 2010.
Patterson said NORMET (Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association) tracked patients who left Rockland to receive care elsewhere: 7.300 cases went to New York City; another 3,800 went to New Jersey. “When you put that in terms the business community can relate to financially, that is $211 million in revenue lost to Good Sam or Nyack Hospital, two institutions with good quality care right here in Rockland.”
Good Samaritan continues to build on its excellence, Patterson said, but it does not come without cost: In addition to millions in taxes the staff and hospital pays, the MTA mobility tax was an extra $2 million expenditure on November 2.
What Patterson would like to see is more people using the services Hudson Valley hospitals like Good Samaritan have available in their own backyard. In turn, said Patterson, hospitals can continue building programs and services to keep patients closer to home “with the same, or a better, outcome than they would have at a New York City or out-of-state hospital.”
