Adirondack Health will close Lake Placid hospital, eliminate 60 nursing home beds
Adirondack Health director Chandler Ralph — head of the hospital that includes medical facilities located primarily Lake Placid, Tupper Lake, and Saranac Lake — unveiled a plan today that will swiftly change the medical and senior care climate in the North Country.
The non-profit will mothball the Lake Placid Hospital, which was built in the 1950s, transferring operations there to an expanded campus on the 13-acre property nearby that now includes the Uihlein nursing home.
As part of the cost-cutting plan, Ralph says Adirondack Health will also eliminate roughly half of their nursing home beds over the next 12-24 months.
Roughly sixty beds will go, all of them currently occupied by seniors and other people needing intensive assisted care. According to Ralph, low Medicaid reimbursements for those patients has cost the organization more than $1 million annually.
“We will still take Medicaid admissions, but it won’t be all comers as it is now,” Ralph said.
Asked what would happen to poor people who need nursing home care, Ralph said that Adirondack Health hopes to help improve the network of care programs — provided by volunteers, churches, governmental agencies, and other groups — that help seniors remain in their homes as long as possible.
But Ralph acknowledged that when people who rely on Medicaid reach the point where a nursing home is necessary, Uihlein wil likely no longer be an option.
This development comes one day before Essex County votes on whether to privatize the Horace Nye nursing home in Elizabethtown.
Part of the debate there centers on the question of whether a for-profit company would accept Medicaid patients in the future.
Speaking today, Ralph suggested that reimbursements from Albany are so low, that a growing number of private and public nursing homes have been forced to end admissions of Medicaid-funded residents.
Here’s the full press release with details of the Adirondack Health proposal:
SARANAC – The Adirondack Health Board of Trustees is moving forward to design a new vision of health care services to be provided on the Uihlein Living Center campus in response to the evolving needs of the Tri-Lakes community.
The complete details are yet to be fully defined, however, one certainty is that family members can be confident the care and quality of life for current residents at the Living Center remains a top priority.
The vision for the integrated medical campus includes a full continuum of post-hospital care services, assisted living, a medical fitness center, right-sizing the skilled nursing beds gradually over time, and the relocation of hospital based and clinic services now located in Lake Placid to the Uihlein campus.
A medical fitness center will provide a wide range of services to all age groups, including adult fitness programs, performance programs for athletes, senior programs, weight management and special populations programs.
The Placid Memorial Hospital was constructed in 1952, and is not configured to provide 21st Century medicine. Creating a new facility on the Uihlein Campus would support the kind of primary and emergency care the community requires, and would generate operating efficiencies through shared services.
Adirondack Health has already met with existing community based services and senior housing providers in order to develop a strong partnership. All of the potential stakeholders in this partnership are excited about the opportunity to establish a robust set of programs and relationships that will be needed to realize the vision.
Nationally, there has been a steady decline in the demand for long term care beds driven by a preference for in-home care and other community based services allowing people to “age in place.” By 2020, the population of Essex County age 65 and older is projected to increase by approximately 16 percent. Adirondack Health must improve its ability to provide innovative services to meet the growing demand for health care services in our community over the next several years.
Adirondack Health experienced a $1.6 million shortfall in 2011, which is largely attributed to inadequate Medicaid reimbursements for its Living Centers in Lake Placid and Tupper Lake. Despite attempts address the reimbursement issues, there has been no action by the State to improve the rates and the current situation is unsustainable. The Board and leadership of Adirondack Health are committed to sound financial stewardship of the entire organization and want to be positioned to have available resources to invest in a variety of needed programs and services.
The Board recognizes the future of Adirondack Health requires a constant focus on service line improvements and other efficiencies to successfully continue its mission of providing comprehensive and compassionate health care services to the community. The changes at the Uihlein campus will better position Adirondack Health for future growth in response to community need.
“We are optimistic about the future course the board has set,” remarked Chandler Ralph, President & CEO of Adirondack Health. “We understand that change is unsettling; positions will change and new positions will be created. We believe the new opportunities that will emerge from this important investment in the future will benefit the patients, residents, staff and community as we establish a stronger platform for the future growth of Adirondack Health.”
Tags: adirondacks, economy, health
I’m absolutely disgusted by the state of healthcare in this country.
You really have to love the nerve in this self-serving press release.
When will doctors, hospitals drug companies and insurance companies just come out and say they want our money but would prefer we just give it to them without them providing any services?
Less is more seems to be basically what this press release is saying.
Imagine the nerve. Someone expects to make enough money to cover expenses and therefore wants to ditch unprofitable business and draw more income producing business. If this guy was a real businessman he would just declare bankruptcy and continue operation without the burden of union contracts and pensions as most of the airlines have done. (and transferring the pension burden to the federal gov’t) Call in the venture capitalists to make the system or break it.
Patient care is largely what nursing is about and requires a varying degree of skill. The medical system is reacting to the expense by dicing the tasks to progressively less skilled people to control costs. No longer are RNs the primary care givers although they have to be licensed. A $14/hr phlebotomist draws blood, a $12/hr tech distributes medications. Lesser trained (but qualified) staff give varying amounts of service so the more expensive staff can do “more” of the higher knowledge or experience tasks. To keep an experienced staff person at $35 per hour plus benefits takes income. Because those people have to pay their auto mechanic or plumber $40 to $60 per hour and maintain their licenses and mandatory education. It is called trickle down. Our local school janitor made $1000 a week, no license required.
These folks in nursing homes need regular baths, feeding, transfer to the cafeteria or special programs or to get some sunshine, 24/7. Stay in bed 5 days and ponder who will clean the sheets and the self and supply clean clothing and perhaps bring food and turn the TV on or off and at what expense.
The good news here is that the fear I expressed in the Horace Nye story comment section about ending my days in a nursing home. will now never come to pass.
There will be no nursing homes to end up in.
“We will still take Medicaid admissions, but it won’t be all comers as it is now,” Ralph said.
Meaning, we can no longer provide service to the poor. If Obamacare should pass, does anyone see the same thing happening down the road to the poor?
Gary, Obamacare has passed. It was signed into law on March 23, 2010. And this has been happening to the poor for a long time now. That’s one of the reasons why we need single-payer.
I was referring to the Supreme Court passing it. A ruling is expected this month. Guess I wasn’t clear. My point, passing a law is one thing, but having funds to support it is another. Examples: social security, Medicare, Medicaid….
Jeff points out the real deal those are the costs and they are expensive. Until a way is found to do health care less expensively how we finance it; won’t really matter.
Funny you don’t here talk about elderly, infirm, people being kicked onto the street in Europe, screwed up as it is.
Newt, here is an interesting story about what is going on in Europe.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/13/business/worldbusiness/13iht-wbelder.2.5273274.html?pagewanted=all
This is interesting:
“Foreign companies have also seen the potential. Sunrise Senior Living, one of the largest assisted living providers in the United States, already operates nine complexes in Germany, another 15 in Britain and is looking for growth in the rest of Western Europe.
The shares of the company, based in Virginia, have risen 32 percent in the year to date as revenue is climbing.”
They want us dead but they also want to put anyone in jail who might have the guts to help us kill ourselves if we need help to do it.