Effective Oct. 1, St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital will be closing its emergency department to align itself with healthcare reform trends and initiatives. It’s believed the closing will result in a $3.2 million savings, but will impact roughly 250,000 Hudson Valley patients regionally. A Town Hall meeting regarding the closure will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday at Anthony’s Pier 9, 2975 US-9W, New Windsor.
According to a press release posted on the hospital’s web site today, New York State is requiring hospitals to reduce unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency department visits by 25 percent. Utilization of the Cornwall emergency department has continued on a steady decline for seven consecutive years. The emergency department saw an average of fewer than two patients per hour last year. Of those, fewer than one in ten needed hospitalization, which occurs on the main campus in Newburgh.
Hospital officials believe the closure of the emergency department will not impede access to care, as the hospital’s Newburgh campus is located roughly five miles away from the Cornwall campus. Additionally, five urgent care centers have opened within nine miles of the hospital in recent years. This, coupled with the expansion of primary care throughout the hospital’s service area, make two emergency departments within five miles of each other a model that is no longer sustainable.
“St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital’s proposal was an affront to the community three years ago and it is an affront now,” Assemblyman James Skoufis said in a press release. “The hospital’s plan to close the Cornwall emergency room will not move forward without a fight.”
In 2013, the hospital applied to the Department of Health for permission to close the Cornwall Emergency Department from 10 at night until 10 in the morning. At that time, the hospital maintained over an 18-month period it had treated only 600 patients between those hours.
“It’s unfortunate they’re forcing us to revisit this,” Skoufis said during a phone interview. “As much as I wasn’t shocked I was still hopeful the hospital would have accepted the outcome from two and a half years ago and realized this is a service the community not only wants but needs. Unfortunately, they did not accept that.”
Click to read the entire press release
