Mohawk Valley Health System Announces Service Changes

During the month of June the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) will be making service changes at both hospitals. The organization will be consolidating its Cardiac Services Program, including cardiac catheterizations and angioplasty procedures, to St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC). Currently cardiac catheterizations and angioplasty procedures are performed at SEMC and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH). Open heart surgery is done at SEMC through the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute. MVHS will be closing a 15-bed medical/surgical unit at SEMC as well as consolidating a limited number of support services.

“These changes will help us to enhance our centers of excellence, support improved clinical quality and provide more efficient services for our patients and their families,” stated Scott H. Perra, FACHE, president and CEO of MVHS. “One of the goals of our hospital affiliation is to centralize services and care whenever possible, building on our expertise, and making the best use of our resources to ensure cost savings. While our financial performance is improving, we have, to date through April, experienced a $1.7 million loss for the system.”

The consolidation of the cardiac program to SEMC will centralize the service and support greater quality and efficiency. New medications that support the early intervention of heart disease are making a difference for patients, which have caused both FSLH and SEMC to see a decline in the number of procedures at both labs. The change will impact patients, medical staff and families in the community so the organization will be working to ensure that there is greater community awareness about where to go if you are experiencing a heart attack.

“Just like FSLH is the Regional Stroke Center, SEMC will build on its reputation as the Mohawk Valley Heart Institute and be the MVHS Center for Cardiac Care,”noted Perra. “We will be working with our Medical Staffs, Emergency Departments and First Responders on the transition and anticipate that we will have everything in place by late June or early July.”

The change also includes the closure of a 15-bed medical surgical unit at SEMC. Officials note that there is bed capacity on other units at SEMC to support the transition.

“In the past few years FSLH has closed two medical surgical floors,” commented Patricia Roach, MS, RN, NEA-BC, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of MVHS. “The trend for patient care is increasingly more outpatient focused and we are seeing a decline in the number of inpatient beds that we need on a regular basis.”

MVHS is also combining its two Central Scheduling Departments, one at SEMC and one at FSLH, into one as well as combining its FSLH Telecommunications and Service Response Center into one operation at FSLH.

“We have 48 employees who will be impacted by the changes,” stated Greg Howard, vice president of Human Resources. “The employees will have the opportunity to apply for other positions within the system. Throughout MVHS we have a number of openings for a variety of positions, especially nursing.

“The staffing changes involve both union and non-union employees,” noted Howard. “To date we have not reached an agreement, known as Effects Bargaining, with the three unions who are represented at the two hospitals. Such an agreement would allow union members to transition more easily from one campus to another. We are hopeful that we can come to an agreement soon as it will benefit our employees who are impacted by these changes.”

The unions include New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) – Local One, both at SEMC, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) – Local 1126 at FSLH.

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Erin Gigliotti