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Hours cut at ER on table
Ellis Hospital officials say midnight shift at former St. Clare's not worth the expense

By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer
First published in print: Wednesday, January 7, 2009

SCHENECTADY — Citing a lack of patients during the overnight period, Ellis Hospital officials want to reduce operating hours at the emergency room at the former St. Clare's Hospital.
     
Some nights, the ER sees only one patient an hour, said Patti Hammond, vice president of operations for Ellis.

"That's not a cost-effective way to run an ER," she said.

Ellis wants to reduce the 24-hour operation by eliminating the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. shift, Hammond said.

Ellis merged with St. Clare's last year. While most inpatient hospital services moved to Ellis Hospital on Nott Street, the emergency room at the McClellan campus — the former St. Clare's Hospital — remained open.

For now, both ERs will continue to run 24 hours a day, Hammond said.

During the early months of the merger, the Ellis ER was overloaded, with some patients waiting six hours to move through the emergency room to admission and finally into a hospital bed. The "triage-to-bed" times improved dramatically in December, hospital officials said. The wait was 14 minutes at the Nott campus and about 22 minutes for patients coming through the McClellan campus ER, said Donna Evans, spokeswoman for Ellis.

The 29-bed emergency room at the Nott campus saw about 124 patients a day in December, Evans said. The 14-bed ER at McClellan treated about 70 daily in the same period. During each overnight shift, the Nott ER averaged 20 patients in December while McClellan averaged nine.

Ellis is in discussions with the federal government to determine if a 16-hour operation can still be considered an emergency room or whether it will have to become an urgent care center. Medicare and Medicaid pay less for services provided at urgent care centers, Hammond said.

Hammond and other Ellis leaders talked about their plans Tuesday at a meeting of the Schenectady County Committee on Health Care Issues, a community group that meets regularly to discuss the health landscape in the region.

The hospital is also in considering expanding its hospital shuttle service to include stops at local nonprofits, Hammond said. A trial run of the shuttle may start at the end of the month. It would pick up patients once a day — just after lunch — and bring them to Ellis campuses. Potential stops on the shuttle would be the YMCA and YWCA, the Bethesda Home, the City Mission and Hometown Health, among others.

Hammond elaborated on the hospital's plan to turn the McClellan campus into a medical mall for outpatient and primary care services. The plan calls for moving toward a "medical home" model, where..................http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=757308

So, just a little while ago, they announced that the "McClellan Campus" was staying open, partially because of the atrocious waits that they had at Ellis because people thought that St. Clare's was completely shut down.  They then spent money going out and telling everybody that St. Clare's was open, therefore spreading the business back out between the two hospitals...errr...the one hospital's two locations.  Now, they're closing down 1/3 of the hours (and with all the fun things going on in Schenectady, I'd bet these can be some of the more busy hours.  So, they're going to close part of the hours, giving everybody the idea that it's totally shutting down again and they don't think this will have a detrimental effect?  Come On!

And at the same time, we can't afford to keep the hospital open all these hours, but we can offer something that we never had when the 2 hospitals were fully and separately functional?  What is somebody smoking in Schenectady?  Never mind, I think we heard that with the recent news of what was going on with the cops evidence locker and party bus episodes.  And where is the money for the maintenance on the bus and the gas going to come from?  The public pocket?

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Ellis is in discussions with the federal government to determine if a 16-hour operation can still be considered an emergency room or whether it will have to become an urgent care center. Medicare and Medicaid pay less for services provided at urgent care centers, Hammond said.

Pay attention to the transition to national healthcare.......it all depends on where you live......and the populace......some folks dont find alot of things
an emergency.....does it mean the populace is that much healthier???---no.....

one needs self knowledge to determine what is an emergency.....sometimes the less knowledge the less of an emergency something seems......

hence, urgent care....

I have talked to some folks that have had to use the St. Clares emergency room. Their impression is that the moral seems very low there. They appear to be waiting for the next shoe to drop.

It is a travesty what has happened to our hospitals in Schenectady County. We let this guy (Connely) , who lives in SARATOGA, waltz into OUR county and totally wreck our most precious commodity........hospital care!! What a mess!!!

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Ellis is in discussions with the federal government to determine if a 16-hour operation can still be considered an emergency room or whether it will have to become an urgent care center. Medicare and Medicaid pay less for services provided at urgent care centers, Hammond said.

Concerned about Universal, government controlled health care? Don't be concerned any longer....IT'S HERE! IMHO