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General News: SLCH Inpatient Unit to Flex Down in March
February 15, 2011
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital announced today that effective March 20, the inpatient unit of the Cornwall campus will be “flexed down,” a move that will shut down the inpatient unit and impact 35 employees. Of those employees, 12 nurses are expected to find positions at the hospital’s Newburgh campus and hospital officials say they will work with the other full- and part-time employees to find new jobs.
Starting on March 20, patients requiring an inpatient stay following a visit to the Cornwall campus’ emergency department will be transferred to the 242-bed Newburgh site. In December, SLCH announced that a drop in demand had resulted in a decision to flex down the inpatient unit, noting that the unit could be re-started if demand increased.
“St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital is now in the position of having to respond to a recent decline in inpatient volumes,” Allan E. Atzrott, President and CEO said in a prepared statement. “We have worked diligently over the last year to prepare for, and respond to, the economic downturn, but we are not immune to its impact on healthcare.”
Hospital officials report that inpatient admissions dipped 13 percent in the last 12 months. They attribute the falling demand for inpatient services to a growing number of people out of work and without health insurance and to more and more people foregoing medical care and opting to postpone elective or non-emergent care.
“It’s necessary that we eliminate these positions at the Cornwall campus to ensure the hospital can sustain healthcare services for residents of the community now and into the future,” said Deborah Turner, Vice President Human Resources.
In its announcement, SLCH said that the Cornwall campus will continue its shift toward an outpatient-focused center, offering necessary healthcare access points to area residents, including an emergency department that treats more than 16,000 patients per year and is staffed by board-certified emergency-medicine physicians. The Cornwall campus also houses a variety of outpatient services including, Radiation Oncology Services, Littman Cancer Center, Wound Care, Kreisberg Pain Management, Eastern Orange Ambulatory Surgery Center, and physical therapy services.
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