SCHENECTADY COUNTY $5M in grants sought for medical mall St. Clare’s center would offer primary care BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
A group of local medical providers, governmental agencies and human service organizations is hoping to obtain $5 million in state grants to reconfigure primary care services in Schenectady County by establishing a medical mall at St. Clare’s Hospital. But at least one member of the group, Hometown Health, believes the task force is moving in the wrong direction. The Schenectady Primary Care Restructuring Committee will submit an application — through Ellis Hospital — to the state Department of Health by May 1. The state has set aside $7.5 million for medical institutions in the Capital Region to improve delivery of primary care services. State Department of Health spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said the grants are part of $100 million to be awarded statewide this summer. “They cover the cost of developing new offices and renovating existing space,” she said. If Ellis receives the full $5 million award, it would transform St. Clare’s on McClellan Street into a regional primary care center, capable of serving thousands of people annually in a one-stop setting, said William P. Spolyar, committee chairman and director of the Schenectady Free Health Clinic. “We are trying to develop a home base for people to receive their primary health care,” he said. The committee also plans to develop over the next six to 12 months a long-term strategy for primary care in the community, Spolyar said. The strategy will consider ways to increase the number of primary care physicians in the county and reduce the number of people with little or no insurance, estimated at approximately 20,000. “There is a shortage of primary care physicians in the country now and it is not an overstatement to say that three to five years from now people will have problems finding primary care physicians,” Spolyar said. “Also, health insurance will become more expensive and less people will have access to it.” The grants are the state’s latest effort to make health care more efficient, cost-effective and affordable. The process began with recommendations more than a year ago from the New York State Commission on Healthcare Facilities in the 21st Century, also known as the Berger Commission, to close nine hospitals and eliminate nearly 3,000 nursing home beds. The recommendations became state law in January 2007. BERGER OUTGROWTH Ellis and St. Clare’s consolidate services and that Bellevue Woman’s Hospital close. In the wake of this hospital reconfiguration, local officials created the task force to examine ways to improve the county’s primary care system. Ellis Hospital CEO James Connolly said “Enhancing the health care delivery system for the entire community involves more than reconfiguring acute care. We are presented with the opportunity and the responsibility to improve the continuum of care — including primary care — with an effort that goes beyond the walls of a hospital, clinic or physician’s office.” Ellis is a member of the task force, which consists of more than 30 medical providers, human service agencies, the county’s medical society and government groups, and will submit the grant to the state. The proposed regional primary care center at St. Clare’s would incorporate the hospital’s family practice and dental residency programs as well as its newly established pediatric program as part of the strategy, Spolyar said. In addition, insurance providers would be available there to sign up people for an applicable medical insurance program, such as Child Health Plus or Medicaid. Ellis would own the center, but other medical providers in the community would be allowed to lease space to offer their services, Spolyar said. The free clinic, Schenectady County Public Health, which offers a number of clinics, private providers and Hometown Health are among those under consideration as tenants. Also under consideration is a plan to develop a network of primary care providers who would go into the community to service people with little or no insurance, Spolyar said. “This would involve reorganizing what exists. We want to make a medical system where you bring the care to people, rather than people come to the care.” HOMETOWN HEALTH Hometown Health, a federal qualified community health center in Schenectady, believes the task force’s primary care model is flawed and could end up costing more money to operate than it will generate. Hometown has offered to take over all primary care services in the county and use its federal designation to obtain a higher reimbursement rate for each patient visit than the proposed medical mall could earn. It receives $116 per patient visit while an urgent care center receives $40 for the same patient, said Joe Gambino, spokesmen for Hometown Health. “If you are going to give this medical mall its best chance of being self-sustaining, is it going to be better sustained at a reimbursement of $116 or $40?” Gambino asked. Hutton said the state’s tentative budget would increase the reimbursement rate to $74 per visit after two years. Gambino said Hometown would have to remain under its own governance, that is outside of Ellis’ control, to maintain its federal qualification. “This proposal would make Ellis do what Ellis does best, which is acute care. Primary care would be taken out of their hands,” he said. Several medical providers have said privately they are opposed to Hometown Health taking over primary care services in the county. The task force has asked local providers for letters of support for its medical mall proposal. Gambino said Hometown will not offer its support until “we have a more clear picture. We want to participate, but what role we should play in it is unclear. The state has already said the safety net providers need to be involved in this project.” Gambino called the task force’s medical mall proposal an ambitious project. “The questions that have to be asked are how much will this medical mall cost, where is the money coming from and how do you know it will sustain itself?” he said. If the medical mall is up and running and Hometown Health is still here, then there would be two primary care practices in operation in the county, Gambino said. “They would be doing what we are doing without the enhanced rate. If they are doing the same thing we are doing and doing it for three times less, it will be hard to sustain.”
SCHENECTADY Hospital merger worries surface Many don’t want to lose St. Clare’s maternity services BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
When Marlene Michaels got pregnant last year, she chose St. Clare’s Hospital in Schenectady to provide her maternity services. The Ballston Lake resident could have traveled to Saratoga Hospital, but decided she liked the type of care provided at St. Clare’s. So when she heard Ellis Hospital was considering a transfer of St. Clare’s obstetrics and gynecology wing to the Bellevue Woman’s Hospital, her concern began to grow. Two years earlier, she had a bad experience during childbirth at Bellevue and refuses to go back. Now in the seventh month of her pregnancy, she’s trying to fi nd out whether she’ll have time to have her child at St. Clare’s before Ellis begins consolidating services among the three hospitals. “That’s my thing,” she said. “There’s no time for me to make my decision, because I will not go back to Bellevue.” Michaels was among about three dozen people who attended a community outreach meeting Ellis conducted Tuesday at Schenectady County Community College. Many of those attending the meeting opposed the suggestion that Ellis move St. Clare’s maternity services to Bellevue’s campus in Niskayuna, even if the shift is temporary. “They let me do what I wanted to do to have a beautiful childbirth experience,” said Marisa Christiano, who had a child at St. Clare’s in 2005 and who works as a child birth educator at the hospital. “I just don’t think they’ll have that level of care at Bellevue.” But James Connolly, the president and chief executive offi cer of Ellis, said no decisions have been solidified yet. He said the state Department of Health is likely to approve an expansion of the Ellis license in June, so that the hospital can assume control of St. Clare’s facilities. “There have been no final decisions made,” he said. “There are some things that are reasonable conclusions, and we’re going to the community and asking if there is a compelling reason why these things shouldn’t happen.” Connolly said moving St. Clare’s maternity services to Bellevue makes logical sense for Ellis because of the economics of the move. He said St. Clare’s oversees roughly 700 births annually, while Bellevue delivers about 1,800. The New York State Commission on Healthcare Facilities in the 21st Century — also known as the Berger Commission — recommended that Ellis and St. Clare’s consolidate services and that Bellevue Woman’s Hospital close In the wake of this hospital reconfiguration, local officials created the task force to examine ways to improve the county’s primary care system. Initial concepts for a reorganized health care system under Ellis suggest St. Clare’s would handle urgent and acute care through its emergency room and Ellis would become the center for inpatient and speciality services. St. Clare’s would lose its critical care unit and perhaps its maternity services to Bellevue, but would keep its intensive care and ambulatory surgery centers. Under this concept, Bellevue Niskayuna campus would remain open to temporarily house the reorganized Ellis maternity services. Meanwhile, the Ellis campus would undergo a massive renovation, including the construction of a new women and children’s health care center. Some attending the meeting said moving services to Bellevue would prompt an exodus of patients from the reorganized Ellis. Others feared moving the maternity services to Bellevue would result in a decline in quality of care, because the Niskayuna campus lacks an intensive care unit. Connolly said the board of directors for both hospitals must approve a plan of action before any changes are implemented and expects to have a game plan for reorganization of the three hospital campuses no later than October. But ultimately, he said there will have to be significant changes to make the system financially viable. “It’s the hand of cards we were dealt and is the hand we have to play,” he said. “We have no other choice.”
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 Ellis taking over St. Clare's Hospital on June 16 The Business Review (Albany) - by Barbara Pinckney The Business Review
After months of planning and negotiations, Ellis Hospital will officially take over neighboring St. Clare's Hospital on June 16.
The two Schenectady hospitals were ordered to combine by the Commission on Health Care Facilities for the 21st Century, or Berger Commission. For a time, it appeared both would remain open under a common parent. But in January, after St. Clare's reported a $5 million loss for 2007, it was decided that St. Clare's would surrender its license to Ellis.
Ellis had, in October, absorbed Bellevue Woman's Hospital, which the Berger Commission wanted closed. The Niskayuna hospital now operates as Bellevue Woman's Care Center.
James Connolly, CEO of Ellis, said that all three facilities will remain open for the foreseeable future, as will both emergency rooms. The combined organization will have 455 beds, 168 less than the three hospitals had before.
St. Clare's, at 600 McClellan St., will be known as Ellis' McClellan Campus. That site will offer a variety of outpatient services, including primary and dental care, day surgery, imaging, wound care, rehabilitation and lab services. All critical care, inpatient pediatric care, and medical/surgical inpatient care, including stroke and cardiac care, will be consolidated at Ellis's main campus at 1101 Nott St. Maternity, obstetrics and gynecology services will take place at Bellevue for the next few years, although plans call for the eventual construction of a women and children's center on the Ellis campus.
Connolly said Ellis has been leaving vacant positions open, and expects to offer jobs to all 621 St. Clares employees.
"We are talking no layoffs," he said.
The combined organization will start out with about 3,000 employees. Offers also are being made to all qualified physicians who practiced at St. Clare's but did not have privileges at Ellis.
Connolly said the transition of St. Clare's services to Ellis will begin June 9 and continue through June 20. The state Department of Health, which already has awarded Ellis and St. Clare's $50 million, will provide another $8.7 million to help defray transition costs.
http://www.dailygazette.com SCHENECTADY Long tradition of care, service by St. Clare’s Hospital ending BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
The Christian crosses are gone and the nuns and priests who walked the floors have or will soon disappear as well. St. Clare’s Hospital is slowly losing its identity as a Catholic health-care facility. On Friday, the 49-year-old hospital will surrender its operating license, becoming a nondenominational health-care provider. At that point, Ellis Hospital will take over St. Clare’s assets and buildings and will rename it the Ellis Hospital McClellan Campus. The Ellis subsidiary will cease operating as a full-service hospital open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Only its emergency room will remain open constantly. Instead, the McClellan Campus will convert to a primary care and urgent care service provider, offering same-day surgery, medical imaging, sleep disorder care, primary and dental care, laboratory services, wound care, infusion therapy and physical and rehabilitation services. St. Clare’s maternity services — one of its bedrock services — will transfer to Bellevue Woman’s Health Care Center, which became an Ellis subsidiary in October 2007. Bellevue will then become the only maternity hospital in the county. Ellis discontinued maternity services in 2000. St. Clare’s will also transfer its medical-surgical beds, critical care, pediatric, stroke and cardiac care services to Ellis. The state Department of Health mandated the Ellis and St. Clare’s merger. The mandate came through the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, known as the Berger Commission after chairman Stephen Berger. The recommendations became state law Jan. 1. The Berger Commission also ordered the closure of Bellevue Hospital. Ellis took over its operations instead, keeping the campus open for maternity services. Ellis has remodeled three floors in its C wing, at a cost of $1 million, to add between 50 to 70 beds. The Berger Commission said the Schenectady community should have 264 beds total, a decrease from the combined 458 beds the two hospitals currently have. The mandates are designed to end duplication of services, improve efficiency and, in the long run, save money. A big savings will come by not having to operate St. Clare’s 24/7. The decision to close St. Clare’s came from its board of directors and Bishop Howard Hubbard of the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, which sponsors St. Clare’s. St. Clare’s CEO Robert Perry said in an earlier interview the option to continue operating independently was no longer possible. The hospital consistently lost money pursuing its mission to help the community’s poor and uninsured. It also had unfunded employee pension obligations totaling $28.5 million, debts and other costs. ‘MEDICAL MALL’ The state provided a grant to cover these costs and more. Ellis will assume a debt-free St. Clare’s, as it did with Bellevue. Perry will leave St. Clare’s at the end of June; Ellis is planning to hire almost the entire St. Clare’s staff, as it did with Bellevue’s staff. Up until its surprise announcement in January to surrender its license, St. Clare’s had been working with Ellis Hospital on a merger agreement. Ellis CEO James Connolly said the long-term plan is to turn the McClellan Campus into a “medical mall,” a one-stop center for people seeking urgent and primary care services. The mall would incorporate St. Clare’s family practice and dental residency programs as well as its newly established pediatric program. In addition, insurance providers would be there to sign up people for an applicable medical insurance program, such as Child Health Plus or Medicaid. Ellis would own the mall, but other medical providers in the community would be allowed to lease space to offer their services. The Schenectady Free Clinic, Schenectady County Public Health, which offers a number of clinics, private providers and Hometown Health are among those under consideration as tenants. Also under consideration is a plan to develop a network of primary care providers who would go into the community to service people with little or no insurance. Connolly believes this medical model, which would take several years to bring online, will serve as a relief valve for the over-burdened emergency rooms operated by Ellis and St. Clare’s. Both emergency rooms see more than 70,000 patients per year; they were designed to handle half that capacity. MILLIONS LOST “If you have a medical home, where people can get care so that they show up at the ER only when they need it, you will reduce the need to go to the ER,” Connolly said. The community has a large population of people with little or no insurance. Estimates put the number at more than 12,000. They go to emergency rooms for their care because they lack primary care physicians, and they arrive often sicker than the average ER patient, therefore requiring extensive, and expensive, medical care. Ellis and St. Clare’s especially provided the care whether the person could pay or not. Each hospital lost millions in uninsured care coverage. By channeling the patients into an urgent care setting, they can receive regular, comprehensive care before their health becomes critical to the point of an ER visit. “We need to invest money to take care of this community because one way or another, we will end up taking care of them,” Connolly said. He called the medical mall “a unique opportunity. We could become a model for other communities.” Ellis is seeking a $5.7 million grant from the state to help establish the medical mall. It also has plans to build a new medical tower as well as a 500- to 600-car garage on its Nott Street campus. The tower would contain obstetric, gynecological and maternity services, pediatric services and neonatal services. Ellis will use money raised through fundraising, state grants and bonds to construct the tower, estimated to cost about $50 million. Once the tower is built, which Connolly expects to occur in 2012, Ellis will move women’s health services there from Bellevue. The Bellevue campus, on Troy Schenectady Road in Niskayuna, could become a nursing school or an education and training center, Connolly said. COMMUNITY SUPPORT Connolly also plans to move some medical imaging services from Ellis to St. Clare’s. This would free up space to expand the Ellis emergency room and establish an urgent care center. The Ellis model has the support of the Schenectady County Medical Society and other groups in the community. But it also has detractors. A newly formed group called Schenectady County Citizens for Hospital Choice opposes the closure of St. Clare’s and the transition of its maternity services to Bellevue. Group spokeswoman Connie Ciervo said Ellis and St. Clare’s should go back to the plan to develop a joint operating agreement. “We feel the administration from Ellis jammed things down the throat at St. Clare’s without an option,” she said. The group’s goal is to make the community aware so that St. Clare’s remains open and keeps its specialties. “We need to have the option to go to whatever hospital we want to,” she said. The group, which consists of about 20 people, wants St. Clare’s to keep its full-service emergency room open and to operate a small critical care unit for people having outpatient surgery and a small birthing unit. COSTS OF MOVING Ciervo said St. Clare’s should offer these services “for the simple reason Ellis doesn’t have [a birthing unit] and if you go to Bellevue and something happens, you have to be shipped elsewhere. Why do that if they have a perfectly good place at St. Clare’s?” Ciervo asked. Connolly said the reason to move St. Clare’s maternity services to Bellevue is a matter of economics. “It would cost us $150,000 to move St. Clare’s services to Bellevue, whereas it would cost $2.7 million to move Bellevue’s services to St. Clare’s,” he said. Bellevue has the beds and capacity to handle an additional 700 to 800 births, which St. Clare’s handles annually. St. Clare’s would require a major redesign of the facility to handle the 1,700 to 1,800 births that Bellevue handles annually, he said. Also, Ellis does not intend to maintain St. Clare’s as a 24/7 hospital, which would be required to operating a birth center. “In either case, it is short-term investment. We are absolutely committed to getting the tower built on the Ellis campus,” Connolly said. PETER R. BARBER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Ellis Hospital neurosurgeon Frank Genovese, right, talks with physician’s assistant Dan Indilicato at the sixth-floor nurse’s station on Friday. Ellis will take over St. Clare’s Hospital this week.
I think it is a shame for a county our size to offer just ONE hospital! It appears that the expenses will all be the same...just in a different location. And it also appears that they will be segregating the insured and the non-insured. Ya know the served and the unserved.
It also seems a bit premature to shut down some of St.Clares services and have Ellis proceed with them at this time. Since Ellis needs to expand FIRST to p/u the overflow from St. Clares.
I have already heard women say that if they have to travel to Bellevue Maternity, they will opted for St. Peters first.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Look at it this way. There's only one place in the county now that you're allowed to give birth and stay with your child. If you have the baby anywhere but Bellevue, the baby will be transported there and you'll stay where you are. If you need surgical services or have any complications, you have to be moved to Ellis or St. Clare's. It's a joke and a travesty to split up families from the day that they are formed. Come on, NY State, it just shows how much more of a joke it is.
Re Michael Lamendola’s June 5 article [“St. Clare‘s set to begin merging into Ellis”] concerning the merger of the main health care facilities in Schenectady County, it’s understood that the area that is losing population and consolidation is needed. I remember three days at Bellevue, hiding the bottles of champagne from the nurses, celebrating the birth of our children. The nurses knew what was happening, but gave us the wink. The most disturbing part of the article was the loss of the name St. Clare’s. In a state that is ready to accept gay marriage, the closure of a Catholic hospital is another slap in the face to us that pray to the pope. Why do I think that the closure of St. Clare’s has everything to do with there unwillingness to perform abortions? Fortunately, for my wife and me, North Carolina is in our near future, where I know that the Baptists will be more tolerant to Catholics than this state. BILL KOUZAN Scotia
SCHENECTADY St. Clare’s Hospital staff to hold candlelight vigil BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Staff nurses and others will conduct a candlelight vigil Sunday night at St. Clare’s Hospital to mark its end as a Catholic healthcare facility. St. Clare’s is surrendering its operating licence Friday and will become a subsidiary of Ellis Hospital. Ellis will rename St. Clare’s the Ellis Hospital McClellan Campus. Elisabeth Smith, a St. Clare’s operating room nurse for the last four years, said she is inviting the community to attend the vigil, to begin at 8:30 p.m. in front of St. Clare’s main lobby. “The hospital has been in the community for 40 years, and it will no longer be St. Clare’s. We have not been able to speak out about it at all,” Smith said. “It happened so fast and we were not able to say anything.” Smith said Rev. Roberta Place, St. Clare’s chaplain will be a guest speaker. Place is leaving St. Clare’s as part of the transition to a nondenominational hospital. Smith expects the vigil to last an hour and become emotional. “This will get some closure to the whole situation. People are all upset about it. People are confused and sad,” she said. Ellis plans to convert St. Clare’s into an urgent care center that will also offer services that can be obtained during the day. St. Clare’s will no longer function as a hospital open 24 hours, seven days a week. The emergency room, however, will remain open. St. Clare’s will transfer its critical care and other inpatient services to Ellis and its maternity services to Bellevue Woman’s Health center. Ellis took over Bellevue last year. Smith said staff remain upset that St. Clare’s is losing its maternity services to Bellevue.
SCHENECTADY Nurses upset with hospital consolidation BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter
Local nurses are calling the current realignment of hospital services in Schenectady County haphazard and are concerned it will affect their jobs and the care they provide to patients, a spokeswoman said, citing the scope and speed of the changes. Ellis Hospital is shuffling many of St. Clare’s Hospital medical services to itself and to Bellevue Woman’s Health Center under a mandate by the state Department of Health. As part of the transition, Ellis will take over St. Clare’s inpatient services, including its critical care and pediatric services. Bellevue will take over women’s health services, including births. Ellis took over Bellevue last year under the same state mandate. St. Clare’s will surrender its operating license Monday and cease to function as a full-service Catholic hospital open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It will remain open primarily as an urgent care center offering sameday services, but it will stop accepting inpatients after June 20. St. Clare’s opened in 1949 and is operated by the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese. Teresa Jewett, a registered nurse at Ellis for 32 years, said, “They have this plan on closing, but they did not have a plan on how to do it. One would think it would be done gradually and publicized. It is not happening that way. It’s been kind of like a mass delivery of services and a merger of seasoned staff into one facility.” Jewett also is chairwoman of the local grievance committee of the New York State Nurses Association, the union representing 450 nurses at Ellis. Ellis spokeswoman Donna Evans said, “Ellis Hospital has worked for many months to develop an extensive and detailed plan for this transition and a team of committed professionals has implemented it carefully over the past several weeks. The health and safety of our patients is always our top priority and has been at the forefront of every decision we have made. With nearly 250 St. Clare’s nurses joining our team, we are prepared to not just sustain, but enhance, the outstanding care for which both institutions have long been known. “We have carefully assembled the right team of people, we have outstanding facilities and technology, and we’re ready to meet all the health care needs of our community at Ellis, at our new McClellan Campus [St. Clare’s] and at Bellevue. Our community expects and deserves nothing less and their expectations will be exceeded,” Evans’ statement concluded. Dr. Brian Gordon, a county legislator and orthopedic surgeon, had no comment on the issue. Attempts to reach Dr. John Assini, president of the Schenectady County Medical Society, were unsuccessful. State Nurses Association spokesman Mark Genovese said the “main concern of the nurses at Ellis and St. Clare’s is that the surrounding community that uses [St. Clare’s] has not been given sufficient notice about the impending closing. They are worried about the lack of access to care for the surrounding neighborhoods.” He said nurses also are concerned that when the transition is complete, Ellis will not be properly staffed to handle the increased workload. STAFFING QUESTIONS Jewett said Ellis is understaffed already but the new nurses will not be used to increase staff levels on the floors. The St. Clare’s nurses are being assigned to new beds that Ellis is opening in the C-wing, even though Ellis is experiencing increased patient loads on the floors and in its emergency room. “We still remain below core staffing even with the new staff,” Jewett said. “Anytime you are understaffed, quality of care is always jeopardized. You want people to feel secure, and they are safe, but the nurse is burning herself out running around.” The association bought an advertisement in Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Gazette. The ad asked whether the merger was “Leaving the community behind?” It also stated the association was there for St. Clare’s nurses. Registered nurses at St. Clare’s are not unionized, but as part of the transition, they have the option to join the SNA. More than 100 St. Clare’s nurses have accepted job offers from Ellis. Bellevue nurses also had the option to join the SNA; many haven’t, Jewett said. “There is a lot of misinformation there,” she said.
I agree, that this knee jerk reaction from the CEO of Ellis to close St. Clares so quickly will compromise patient care. My mom was hospitalized at Ellis in November/December of 2007 for her open heart surgery. And all I can say is that I still have all of her records in a file ready to go to an attorney "when the day comes".
There was a lack of communication, patient care, respond times, poor nursing care, poor doctor care, medication errors, and poor medical judgment. But the food was good!
I guess this can all be attributed to understaffing. High costs. Insurance regulations. State regulations. Guidelines. Over worked. Or just looking for a healthier "bottom line". I've said it before and I will say it again, that the health care industry is broken. Merging 2 hospitals will not solve the problem. In the case of the St. Clares/Ellis merger, the problems that already exist will continue to exist. Except now all the problems will be at one location.
This is just another step toward government mandated, controlled health care. I appears to me, that this merger is more about trying to create a larger "bottom line" than it is about improving patient care.
It still pisses me off that Hubbard rolled over on this one and gave up without a fight.
He's too busy keeping track of where the priests and little boys are.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Memories to last a lifetime from years at St. Clare’s Hospital
It’s with great sadness that I watch the closing of St. Clare’s Hospital. I spent the better part of my surgical career at this hospital. There were a lot of long nights, but wonderful memories. St. Clare’s always excelled at providing outstanding love and caring for their patients — especially the under-served. It was a lifeline for many in the community. I have worked at many hospitals during my career, but what set St. Clare’s apart was the St. Clare’s “family.” The hospital was small enough that everyone knew each other, from the wonderful medical and dental staff, nurses and administration to the housekeeping staff. When tragedy affected one of our family, we would gather together and help them with a bake sale or ziti dinner. For joyous occasions for our family, we would celebrate with a party or an employee recognition dinner. Now our marvelous staff has been scattered in the wind, and we are left only with our memories of what a wonderful hospital it was and a lifetime of friendship through the caring for others. Thanks for the memories, St. Clare’s. JOHN M. SPRING, M.D. Schenectady The writer if the former chief of orthopedics at St. Clare’s Hospital
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