Closure plan falls short
The potential closure of the Burdett Birth Center in Troy requires, at minimum, a well-researched, detailed shutdown plan that satisfactorily answers community concerns about the impact of shifting patients to hospitals in Albany and Schenectady.
The plan submitted by St. Peters Health Partners is ... not that.
The 43-page document, submitted to the state Health Department in December, leaves important questions unanswered. Worse, it suggests that the planning for the closure, which would leave Rensselaer County without a birthing center, has been insufficient, if not downright sloppy.
For example, the plan says the Ronald Mcdonald House in Albany would be available for women with high-risk pregnancies and their families. The problem? St. Peter’s apparently failed to nail down details with the Ronald Mcdonald
House; its CEO says she was not specifically notified about a potential influx of clients from Burdett, which is part of the St. Peter’s-run Samaritan Hospital in Troy.
Likewise, two midwifery practices cited as resources for expectant parents told Times Union reporter Rachel Silberstein they had not been consulted about being included in the plan. Both said they were unprepared to help fill the gaps that would be left by a Burdett shutdown.
How could St. Peter’s possibly tout these practices as solutions without consulting them first? The oversight suggests the closure plan was rushed, at best.
Alas, the problems don’t stop there.
With transportation concerns paramount, officials at St. Peter’s cite a possible partnership with Roundtrip, a software company that coordinates rides for patients, and note an existing relationship with Tech Valley Shuttle, a Cohoes company that can provide transportation with advanced notice. But as noted by activists opposed to the shutdown, both companies work with Lyft and Uber, car-share services whose reliability varies with the number of available drivers. Women in labor need transportation options that are far more predictable.
Activists are also asking whether St. Peter’s Hospital can handle the proposed influx of patients. They say the hospital’s birthing facility is already overcrowded and understaffed, suggesting that the closure plan’s proposal to add five beds and a birthing suite is insufficient.
Officials at St. Peter’s disagree, of course, and they justify the closure — which requires approval by the state health commissioner — by saying that Burdett has been losing $2.3 million annually and is no longer viable, given low Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement rates and high insurance costs. They say financial losses at Burdett are impacting the ability to provide vital services elsewhere in the system.
Those arguments are likely valid, and we don’t underestimate the difficulties faced by administrators forced to maintain sustainability in a deeply flawed health care system. But the arguments don’t erase the community’s need for a safe, accessible place to give birth. And that means, at the very least, a comprehensive closure plan must address the concerns of the Rensselaer County residents who could be left without one.
We need more details and better answers. The health commissioner must demand them.