Sad, bad news for Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry. A state panel has recommended that the hospital (which has served many Greenburgh residents for years)be closed down. The panel that made the recommendation was charged with reorganizing NY's health care system. The Hospital is affiliated with St.John's in Yonkers.
The hospital plans to wage a campaign to keep the Community Hospital open. Interested in getting involved? Let me know.
This is not the first time that the hospital has been threatened with closure.
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36 comments:
The hospital has always been helpful to my family and friends.
I would be interested in helping.
What is the precise rationale of the state panel's recommendation? Before any war is waged to keep it open, we need to know the specific battle areas.
The state is concerned, as should we all, regarding health care costs.
According to the papers, DFCH has only 50 beds, but it would seem that as it part of an associated group of hospitals it can share costs. Obviously its owners, Riverside Corp, are going to try to save it.
I think compromise may be the better answer --- shut down some departments, combine others with affiliated hospitals.
Who's the brain child on this panel
that wants to close the only hospital that is making a profit.
The state was the one who asked that this hospital be saved 4 years ago and now that its running well they want to close it.
The panel state the employees for closing hospital would be absorbed by other hospital! Did the panel state that all the hospitals were over staffed? Sound like double talk to me!!!
The panel state the employees for closing hospital would be absorbed by other hospital! Did the panel state that all the hospitals were over staffed? Sound like double talk to me!!!
Who can we call to help Community Hospital At Dobbs Ferry.
Happy Holidays from your loving Govenor.
Instead of spending $$ to improve CHDF has to use the $$ to pay lawyers to help save the hospital.
To Help Community Hospital Please call the dept of public relations.
674-9780 ext300
The inpatient section of Dobbs Ferry Hospital could be closed no problem. There are plenty of beds available at nearby hospitals. Many outpatient services could also be closed; patients could go to more advanced hospitals in the area.
However, an emergency department and an urgent care center are still needed in the area. That seems like the one specific battle to fight that could be won.
I want the state to answer, given the number of roads that were out for large periods, how are people supposed to get to other emergency rooms.
There is also the plan to change Andrus from a nursing home to assisted care.
I dont know what the DF people think about this, but I think it is cruel to our elderly. How are are they going to be moved to another facility? If they have used up their own funds, and are on Medicare, how easy will it be for them to find a space in another facility? Some are so elderly they may not even have children any more. At a minimum, this should be transistioned slowely, with changes rooms as they become empty, and not forcing the elderly out in their wheel chairs.
This is pathetic, and if you beleive the measure of a society is how we treat our most vulnerable, it does not say much about us.
Close the inpatient of DF !!!!
Are you Nuts thats whats making money. Close White Plains! and or the big money Pit WMC!!!
How can we help DF in this battle!
Is it true that Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry is being closed so the state will have a location to house HIV homeless?!
The waits at the big Hospitals are now at least 3-4hrs if you give them more pressure you'll be dead of old age before someone can help you!!!!!
Sad in the rivertowns said...
This will not be any easy fight. Hospitals like DF may have the option to file for bankruptcy to get federal court protection against state regulators. This however might jeopardize any assistance funds the state is promising for closed facilites. Now we read Spitzer and Pataki agree with the commission that DF should close. Gee thanks Andrea Stewart Cousins.
It is fiscally prudent to close the hospital. Services can be handled just fine a few miles north and south. St. John's is easily accessible to Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry; Phelps Memorial is easily accessible to Irvington and Tarrytown.
I do think, though, that an urgent care center of some sort, or at least a Mediplex or DOCS, should be in the western Greenburgh area - perhaps in Ardsley or Elmsford (more centrally located for Greenburgh).
A battle to save the hospital will be expensive, emotional, time-consuming, and futile.
"a location to house HIV homeless"
I don't know if it's true, but it would be great idea and setting for such an important facility.
Only 8 percent of their patients are Medicaid patients.
"Gee thanks Andrea Stewart Cousins."
What in the world would she have to do with this?
"The hospital has always been helpful to my family and friends."
"The waits at the big Hospitals are now at least 3-4hrs ... dead of old age before someone can help you!!!!!"
Be forewarned that emotional responses such as these will definitely not be of any assistance. In fact, they may only serve to re-solidify the decision.
To reverse the commissions's decision (very very unlikely), hard data is needed, and not of the qualitative type.
one might expect something from stewart cousins on the closing of the hospital. if she doesnt speak up on this issue, it would appear we can expect very little from her over the next 2 years. she is there simply because she ran in a district with a 40,000 registered democratic voter edge in a year when the democratic ticket was strong and the republicans were imploded by bush, iraq, and 12 years of pataki's inept and ghostlike tenure.
Where are all the weasles Oh I'm Sorry I meant political leaders now! Help our hospital!!!! Don't hide now the rivertowns are in danger! I don't want ot go to some clinc!! I want my friendly local hospital which has save many of my familes lives!!!!!!!!!! Hillery,Nick,Andy,Andrea,Chuck Where are you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You were here to ask for our vote!!!! Now we need your votes!!
Step up! Why aren't you in front of CHDF addressing the press like you fellows in Queens. Camera Shy!!!
I think the earlier person who asks for hard facts is right, but there are hard facts. Not only does the hospital show a small profit, it helps a hospital in Yonkers through shared services. Many of the CHDF patients will not go to Yonkers if CH is closed; they will go to Tarrytown or White Plains. This will hurt the Yonkers affilialed hospital. I think this decision is premature.
I think the earlier person who asks for hard facts is right, but there are hard facts. Not only does the hospital show a small profit, it helps a hospital in Yonkers through shared services. Many of the CHDF patients will not go to Yonkers if CH is closed; they will go to Tarrytown or White Plains. This will hurt the Yonkers affilialed hospital. I think this decision is premature.
"I don't want ot go to some clinc!! I want my friendly local hospital which has save many of my familes lives!!!!!!!!!!"
This kind of melodrama will get you laughed at. You need quantitative data, period, to support keeping the hospital open.
The argument back would be that if you don't want to go to a clinic, then go to one of the several other nearby hospitals. If you want a "friendly" hospital, that's such a fluffy, relative term that it will not even be considered.
Numbers are what you need, period.
Here are some numbers. ER wait times. St.John's 3.0,Phelps 3.0, St.Joe's 3.5,WPH 3.5 increase their load by 3% and the wait time increases by 45 min.
The Supervisor sent a town e-mail with intelligent statistics that could be very convincing. With this data, the state committee will now have to defend their perspectives to us regarding closing the hospital, rather than the other way around. This is precisely the data that I was discussing in an earlier posting.
Here's the section of the Supervisor's e-mail for those of you who didn't receive it:
"The Greenburgh Town Board unanimously approved a resolution at the December 4th Town Board meeting urging the state to save the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry. This hospital should not be closed. The hospital is profitable –in 2006 the hospital projects a profit of $625,000. From an operating margin perspective CHDF is the most profitable entity in the entire Hudson Valley region. The hospital is the lowest cost facility in its region. The average length of stay for patients in NY is 6.1 days versus a national ALOS of 4.8. The average length of stay at Dobbs Ferry is 4.4 days. The hospital is also the fastest growing facility in the region –discharges have grown by 20% over four years. Referred ambulatory procedures have grown by 24.4% Ambulatory surgery volume has grown by 8% over 4 years. Emergency room volume has grown by 17% over 4 years.
"The drive time from the river villages to Phelps, White Plains, the Westchester Medical Center & St. John’s Riverside Hospital is between 15-30 minutes. However, during busy times of the day the drive time more than doubles. A patient in cardiac arrest must reach the hospital within 8 minutes. The closest Emergency Rooms in other hospitals have waits of more than 3 hours or more. If the state closes the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry the 900 visits a month will have to be redistributed to nearby emergency rooms in other hospitals which are already overcrowded with extremely long waits causing further waiting times.
"Advocates for the hospital recommend that supporters of the hospital write to Governor Pataki, Governor-elect Spitzer and other lawmakers urging them to support the hospital. If you are interested in being kept informed of the lobbying efforts to save the hospital please e mail me at pfeiner@greenburghny.com. The possible closure of the hospital is the biggest possible crisis facing our community at the present time. We must all work overtime to save this great asset."
DEAR MR.CORTI:
As I watched the volunteers at Dobbs Ferry Hospital folding and mailing letters I suddenly [slowly – soldiers are not too bright} realized that this fight was not just to save a community hospital – but much more.
This is really a fight by small town America – but really every Americans fight against the bureaucracy.
If the bureaucrats under the guise of government take private property – close and shut down a successful community hospital – what is next.
Who will stop them when they come to take my house – or my business to accomplish their view of our country.
WAKE UP AMERICA – RON CORTI – GET THE WORD OUT – IF DOBBS LOSES IT IS NOT JUST THE LOSS OF A HOSPITAL – IT IS THE THREAT OF LOSS BY EVERY AVERAGE AMERICAN OF HIS PROPERTY.
IF DOBBS LOSES – EVERY AMERICAN LOSES!
WAKE UP – WAKE UP – THIS IS THE FIGHT FOR THE AMERICA WE VETERANS FOUGHT FOR!
Thank you for the courage to make the good fight against those who would take away our freedom!
Good luck “David against Goliath”
JUST AN OLD SOLDIER WHO IS NOT VERY SMART – but smart enough to know that this is every Americans fight for small town America!
Closing hospital in Dobbs Ferry will create hardship
By PETER J. ROY
(Original publication: December 4, 2006)
I was greatly disturbed to hear the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century's recommendation to close our Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry. I am a life-long resident of the rivertowns, growing up in Irvington and now residing in Dobbs Ferry. Community Hospital is a vital part of the community; pure numbers, and dollar and cents, cannot be the measures alone in the hospital's importance to the region.
I am a emergency medical technician who "rides" for both the Irvington and Dobbs Ferry Volunteer Ambulance Corps. I am a former captain and line officer in Irvington and currently serving as lieutenant of the Dobbs Ferry Corps. In addition, I am a member of the Irvington Fire Department, where I have also served as an assistant chief and line officer. I have more than 14 years of experience with emergency medical service in the area and cannot overstate the importance of Community Hospital.
The ability to bring non-traumatic medical emergencies to Community Hospital vs. transports to Westchester Medical, or St. John's Riverside or Phelps Memorial is reason alone to keep this facility open. The other facilities, while larger and having additional services, are many times overwhelmed with patients, and depending on the time of day, could be difficult to transport due to traffic conditions. Closure of Community Hospital will tax the surrounding area emergency departments as they will need to absorb the patients that Community Hospital currently handles as well as delay care to patients that are currently served.
What bothers me most is the fact that the commission seems to dismiss the improvements in the financial well being of Community Hospital since its inclusion in the Riverside Health Care System. The partnership with St. John's Riverside Hospital has been an economic success as well as relieved potential overcrowding of St. John's Riverside Hospital that may have occurred if Community Hospital was closed a few years ago. The commission's report itself stated, according to a Thursday article in The Journal News, "There are no efficiencies to be gained and possibly profit to be lost . . ." with the closing of the Community Hospital. The article also noted that "only eight percent of their (Community Hospital) patients are Medicaid patients. It does not cause any real burden to the taxpayers (financially.)"
Health-care costs do need to be examined; there are excesses in the system, and improvements should be made. Yet it is my opinion that the closing of the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry is far from an improvement in the well-being of the overall system. Closing it will, in fact, cause greater hardship. We are talking about life-saving, time-sensitive care that this facility offers to the community. It is not in excess, it is necessity.
The writer is NYS EMT-B #192686 and ex-captain of the Irvington Volunteer Ambulance Corps as well as ex-chief of the Irvington Fire Department and lieutenant of the Dobbs Ferry Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
It's nice to see that many have come to help volunteer at Community hospital at Dobbs Ferry. But they still need lots of helping hands. I helped fold and stuff 1000's of signed letters that were sent to local politicians.The employees were
all in a work frenzy eventhough most had already put in a long day. It felt great to see them all pull together and work as a unit. What they need now is a local front person from the area with some Star power. Opra! Rosey! Merith! Storm! Stone! Anyone! Please help us save this wonderful place!
I would like to thank Supervisor Feiner for stepping up and speaking out about the closing. We will need more voices to continue the good fight. The Berger BOYS made it to easy for things to work in their favor. No vote to pass, holiday release! Please why didn't they wait until nightfall to place locks on the doors! We need more voices to roar!!!
Seems everyone has forgotten about Chdf!
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