STRONG OPPOSITION
Community members dissatisfied with public forum on Burdett Birthing Center closure plan
The first in-person public forum regarding the planned closure of Burdett Birthing Center in Troy was packed, lasted twice as long as scheduled, and left activists, coalitions, and community members dissatisfied.
SPHP, a member of the Trinity Health system, announced in July 2023 that they were planning to close Burdett — removing the only SPHP labor and delivery center in Rensselaer County — and transfer all delivery services to St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany (excluding unexpected emergencies).
Though initially scheduled to close at the end of 2023, SPHP CEO and President Dr. Steven Hanks said at the forum on Wednesday night at the Bulmer Telecommunications Center at Hudson Valley Community College that they now plan to close the birthing center on June 30, 2024.
“What you’re seeing here is what happens when a community cares so deeply about something that they just don’t stop,” said Ashley Soupp, one of the lead organizers of the Save Burdett Birth Center Coalition (SBBCC), to the panel of hospital personnel at the forum on Wednesday night at the Bulmer Telecommunications Center at Hudson Valley Community College. “I find it really shameful that it took you nine months to face us in person.”
The forum was held similarly to a City Council meeting with two microphones for community members to approach and ask questions to a panel of seven personnel members from St. Peter’s Health Partners (SPHP), who operate Burdett in connection with Samaritan Hospital. Throughout the nearly three-hour back and forth, others from SBBCC, nurses, doulas, midwives, doctors,
and concerned community members spoke and asked questions about the closure. The forum was originally scheduled from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Immediately facing pushback from the community, the proposed closure has been delayed a few times and has garnered bipartisan opposition from local and state leaders as well as a public hearing hosted last year by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. James is also investigating the closure plan as well, which Hanks said they filed a motion to quash on Wednesday. For the closure to go through, however, the proposal still must be approved by the New York State Department of Health, which has not done so yet.
A community meeting like Wednesday is required by the DOH, and though SPHP held a virtual town hall in November, many in the community called it severely lacking. Though Wednesday’s was held in person, Soupp and several other speakers called the conditions “disgraceful.”
The room’s capacity is 178 but dozens of people stood along the walls and at the back of the room and Soupp said the same amount of people that were in the room were stuck in the lobby. The room became warm quickly with one speaker commenting that people had to leave because they were worried about their health and multiple people commented on the police force present; the unaffiliated moderator called it a “precautionary measure,” which was met with laughs and one person in the back of the room remarked, “My tax dollars are paying for that (and) not a birthing center.”
The panel reiterated that they were closing Burdett due to financial reasons among other issues like staffing shortages and a declining birth rate, however, Hanks did put a number to the problem and said $50 million would make them reconsider their steps forward. Regarding funding though, Assemblymember John McDonald, D-Cohoes, read a joint statement at the Wednesday forum that said they had offered to look into funding through options like the state budget but had been met with minimal non-specific responses from SPHP officials. McDonald’s brother is New York State Health Commissioner James McDonald.
The other elected officials signed onto the statement were Senator Jake Ashby, R-C-Castleton, Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, D-Albany, Assemblymember Scott Bendett, R-C-Sand Lake, Republican Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, Republican City of Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello and Democratic Troy City Council President Sue Steele, all of whom were present at the meeting except Fahy. They said there had been several missteps in the process, and they placed blame on the higher-ups who have made this decision, not the local leaders who are simply following corporate directives.
“What has been most disappointing is how Trinity has continued to plow ahead with their plan unapologetically. It is almost as if Trinity and SPHP consider this closure a done deal, and that Trinity is just ‘checking the boxes,’” McDonald said. “If Trinity is truly concerned about the life of mom and child, we are hopeful that after listening to the members of our community tonight… they might want to see how we can find a solution.”
Concerns about transportation, the midwifery model of care that Burdett specializes in being available at St. Peter’s Hospital, and the ability of the other area hospitals, located in Albany, to absorb the influx of new patients were some of the most repeated concerns. Similar to the town hall in November, the personnel said they would make transport plans with all expecting families, midwifery would be moved to and incorporated in Albany, and they have the staff to absorb the about twoand-a-half more births per day.
Dissimilar, however, was the community’s responses to those claims with many saying it can take over half an hour during rush hour to get from Burdett at 2215 Burdett Ave. in Troy to St. Peter’s Hospital or Albany Medical Center, both located on or near New Scotland Avenue in Albany, which does not include travel from further distances or those without access to transport and that midwifery and the culture around it at St. Peter’s would need to significantly change for it to be the same as Burdett. Nurses from Albany Medical Center and Bellevue Women’s Center in Schenectady also said the capacity concerns were completely warranted.
Afterward, two nurses, Kathryn Dupuis and Dawn Zipp, said they were disheartened but not surprised by what was said. The nurses care about the babies, the moms, and the person lying in their beds, not the big man; that’s why the nurses came, they said.
“They’re claiming it’s not going to affect us, but it’ll be just like I said. We can barely staff what we have right now,” said Dupius, who has been a nurse at Albany Medical Center for 29 years. “They’re not going to increase our staffing numbers to absorb Burdett’s patients in anticipation so we’re going to be shuffling, and patients are going to suffer.”
Zipp, who is a nurse at Bellevue, said there is a community in need that is being “disregarded” and when the corporation needed to make cuts, they targeted the minority population and most vulnerable people. SPHP has not given the community a reason to trust them, she said, and they are putting profit over safety and patient care.
“I’m appalled at the lack of understanding of the need for quality care that’s accessible,” Zipp said. “I don’t expect them to change their trajectory, but what I do anticipate is that they paid attention to the fact that there were nurses present that were willing to stand on the line.”
Zipp is also concerned Bellevue, which will soon be run by SPHP, will meet the same fate though Hanks said that was in no one’s mind or part of any discussion. Several nurses and Soupp also said that nurses at St. Peter’s were being barred from speaking out by being threatened with losing their jobs.
Albany Med and Bellevue are unionized under the New York State Nurses Association, but Soupp said the St. Peter’s nurses have a gag order in their contracts and were even reprimanded for wearing SBBCC pins to work. Kim Baker, Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations, said they have never given that message to their nurses and encourage dialogue.
Some statements by the panelists were answered with laughter, shouted follow-up questions, or sounds of disbelief and shock. When one panelist remarked emergency middle-of-the-night labor was obviously a 911 call, several people reacted to say it absolutely was not. When Hanks reiterated they were a not-for-profit organization that put every cent back towards their patient, the room laughed and someone called out, “How much is that?”
Zipp said it felt like they were just giving the community “lip service” without listening to their concerns at all. Another community member during a statement from Baker said it felt like “gaslighting.” No one who came up to the microphone spoke in support of the closure.
Soup, who delivered her child last March at Burdett, said the community’s questions were not answered and was stunned by the disregard for the community even when face-to-face with the impacted people. SPHP has never been communicative or friendly, she claims, but she thinks the forum gives the DOH more to look at and think about as they consider the closure plan.
Both members of the DOH and the Attorney General’s staff were in attendance or watching the livestream, Soupp said. She hopes that they truly scrutinize what’s happening and deny the closure.
“They (SPHP) cannot hide from the state,” she said. “They delivered on not really answering anything that we asked. I think they’re doubling down on this incoherent and incomplete closure plan and we look forward to continuing to fight.”