OK..the votes are in...and it looks like the Berger Commission failed miserably on this one. One of the most sacred things left in this country is our health care. And it is truly a great one!! People come from other countries just to be treated here. We have the best doctors and medical technology. We are state of the art. Or should I say we were. Ya see what happens when the government gets involved?

The berger commission did exactly what it was set up to do.....let us see what would happen when a 'healthcare crisis' happened....how the system needs more oversite and other decision makers.....I just cant wait to see....I'm so excited.....

http://www.timesunion.com

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Ellis adds beds, bays to handle ER surge

By CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY, Staff writer
Friday, July 25, 2008

SCHENECTADY - Acknowledging that patients have regularly waited six hours - and sometimes more than 10 hours - to see an emergency doctor at Ellis Hospital and the former St. Clare's Hospital, Ellis leaders are adding more beds to the emergency room and medical floors at Ellis.
     
Before the June 16 merger, Ellis Hospital saw about 110 patients a day in its emergency department. The number has jumped to 124 per a day, and occasionally 150, said James Connolly, president of Ellis Hospital.

"We got hit by a big migration of patients from the St. Clare's campus to our campus. while we had projected that that could happen, there virtually was nothing we could do early on to create the space that was need to accommodate that volume," Connolly said. "The ER did get overrun a bit."

Two weeks ago, the time between arrival in the ER and admission to a hospital bed was often six hours. The wait time has improved, but has not reached the hospital's goal of 3.5 hours, Connolly said.

Patients have complained about the wait times, including one grievance delivered by Connolly's own neighbor, he said.

Both Ellis and the St. Clare's, now called the McClellan Campus, have full emergency departments, but the McClellan Campus no longer admits patients to beds on the medical floors. Those patients are transferred to Ellis by ambulance. Connolly said one or two patients are transferred a day.

The Ellis ER has about 94 nurses and support staff, and the McClellan Campus ER has 46.

So where should Schenectady residents go in an emergency?

"If you are not sure and your really feeling ill and your chest is getting tight, don't even think about it: go to the closest one,'' Connolly said. "If your discomfort is mild and not severe, I think the McClellan ER is fully functioning and will probably have shorter waits than the Ellis ER."

Before the merger Ellis had 22 treatment bays. It has since added six and another 11 will be ready within six weeks, nearly doubling its capacity.

Meanwhile, Ellis opened up 25 more beds on the medical floors and will have another 35 or 40 more by this fall.

"If we don't have enough beds in our facility, the patients simply sit in the ER waiting to be taken upstairs and that clogs up the ER," Connolly said. "Many people think the long waits in the ER are all about the ER, but usually about getting the patients admitted to the floors."

In the long term, Ellis is looking to expand its emergency department to 50 or 60 bays. The project is still in the design process and needs to be approved by the state. The hospital hopes to complete construction within four years. It will likely cost more than $50 million, Connolly said.

Despite the surge in ER visits, Dr. Brian Gordon, who is a Schenectady County legislator and a orthopedic spine surgeon in Schenectady, said the care provided at both hospital campuses is still good.

"This is a work in progress," Gordon said. "The long term goal is noble and I think we will have a better health care system in the long run. It's just going to take some time."

This Brian Gordon is a real capodost, no? A real hard head. Imagine if his little boy or girl waited like that {OH excuse me he is a big wheel doctor over there and they will NEVER HAVE to wait we all know, soorry) for 6 hours, then is this still the 'work in progress that is still good? He is one who didnt want St Clairs since there was no abortions there. I know all about it from the inside people at St Claires. I know all about it what he said.

4 YEARS FOR AN EXPANDED ER? Hardly not quick enough. It is time for the CEO of Ellis and everyone on that Berger commission to throw in the towel and admit defeat! It was a poorly planned merger. The CEO of Ellis must be very egotistical to even think that they could pull this off. Oh sure, they can keep the doors open and see patients....however, the quality of care has been miserably compromised. Where are our local legislatures? Why are they not fighting for the health care of Schenectady?

I wonder just how many other letters to the editor complaining of poor health care were submitted and never made it to print. Cause everyone I talk to has a horror story!

I know I lmust be living in an alternate universe- and I understand if your emergency occurs before 8 am or after 10 pm-

I personally have not been in an emergency room in 50 years- there are plenty of prompt-care- emergecy care clinics ( they are not free by the way ) where  you can get treatment EASILY  with in the hour- without exception-

I know I lmust be living in an alternate universe- and I understand if your emergency occurs before 8 am or after 10 pm-

I personally have not been in an emergency room in 50 years- there are plenty of prompt-care- emergecy care clinics ( they are not free by the way ) where  you can get treatment EASILY  with in the hour- without exception-

Interesting:

http://www.schenectadytoday.com/2008/07/26/survey-ellis-hospital-services/

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Before the merger Ellis had 22 treatment bays. It has since added six and another 11 will be ready within six weeks, nearly doubling its capacity.

Meanwhile, Ellis opened up 25 more beds on the medical floors and will have another 35 or 40 more by this fall.

These new implementations to Ellis should have been done before the merger. With my experiences with Ellis Hospital, and in my opinion, it was just poor planning.

http://www.dailygazette.com

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-VIEWPOINT
Unhealthy choice
Sneaky closing of St. Clare’s Hospital was major disservice to community
BY CONNIE CIERVO For The Sunday Gazette

    I’m writing this as the spokeswoman for a grass-roots movement called Schenectady County Citizens for Hospital Choice. I’m outraged that James Connolly (Ellis Hospital CEO) and his board of directors made the decision to close St. Clare’s Hospital. They have done a grave disservice to the  citizens of our community.
We pay good money for health insurance and in New York state we pay through the nose for our taxes. We should have hospital choice, not a hospital monopoly. Mr. Connolly and the Ellis board of directors took millions of taxpayer dollars for a consolidation of hospital services and then abruptly closed St. Clare’s. As recently as late April, we were told that St. Clare’s would remain open.
    To set the record straight, the Berger Commission recommended keeping St. Clare’s and Ellis hospitals open and separate with one administration. Their recommendation was to close Bellevue, not St. Clare’s. Instead, without any real input from the community and behind closed doors, a handful of people made decisions that would impact and already are gravely impacting the entire community.
GROWING DISCORD
    Over the past several weeks, anyone who has had the misfortune to need the services of a hospital emergency room has found out firsthand that this move was ill-conceived and poorly planned. Starting with a June 20 letter by Michelle Sausa-Gatta, “Ellis Hospital emergency service raises question,” where she said “the emergency room was understaffed, ill–equipped and disorganized,” there has been a series of critical letters in The Daily Gazette.  While Mr. Connolly sits in his ivory tower telling us that he has everything under control and the closing of St. Clare’s was well planned, the health and well-being of the people of our community are in jeopardy. The only plan that Mr. Connolly and his board of directors seems to have had was to coerce St. Clare’s to close and keep it quiet until it was too late for the community to react. Had the people been told the truth, we may have been able to have yet another fund-raiser to keep St. Clare’s open.
One of the best excuses, actually most laughable excuse, was that St. Clare’s treated a lot of people who did not have insurance. So does this mean that now that St. Clare’s is part of Ellis, all the people who didn’t have insurance will somehow magically get insurance, or will they just stop needing medical care? Don’t think so. By law, Ellis will have to take care of the uninsured because it is illegal for a hospital to refuse medical care to a person in New York state, whether they have insurance or not.
    Over the past several weeks, I know of several family friends who needed emergency care and went to the emergency room at Ellis Hospital. These are just a few of their encounters. One woman had gone to the Ellis emergency room to be treated for shortness of breath. She also had a history of heart problems. She waited seven hours before she was even brought into an exam room to be evaluated. Once her treatment was begun, they ran out of oxygen. Incredible! Another friend of the family had gone to the Ellis emergency room on another day at noontime for severe back pain (post-surgical) and never got into an exam room until 6:30 p.m. These health-care needs are everyday occurrences in a community our size. Waiting six to eight hours for care is not and should not be the norm.
    I cannot imagine the gravity of the situation should our community find itself in a situation where a large-scale disaster were to occur.
IN NEED OF REALITY CHECK
    Mr. Connolly should leave his office and spend a few hours in the emergency room at Ellis so that he can see the reality and the consequences of his decisions. St. Clare’s emergency room is still open, but because of the misinformation that some of our local media outlets keep perpetuating, many people don’t know they can still receive medical care at St. Clare’s. Others fear if they need to be hospitalized, it just makes sense to go directly to Ellis.
    For over 60 years, the Catholics and many non-Catholics of Schenectady and surrounding communities have given millions of dollars to various fund-raising projects for St. Clare’s.
With the latest census bureau statistics indicating that Schenectady County is becoming one of the fastest-growing counties in the entire Northeast, it doesn’t make sense to close a perfectly good hospital and try to service the health-care needs of a community our size with just one hospital. We need to take action and make our voices and concerns heard, for our own wellbeing and that of our families and neighbors. Anyone who would like more information can contact me at ciervoca@verizon.net.

That was an EXCELLENT article ..

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With the latest census bureau statistics indicating that Schenectady County is becoming one of the fastest-growing counties in the entire Northeast, it doesn’t make sense to close a perfectly good hospital and try to service the health-care needs of a community our size with just one hospital.

Has anyone seen the data to substantiate this claim?  I recently heard on a radio news broadcast that the population of Schenectady County grew only slightly over the past several years and at a pace slower than Saratoga county.

If, indeed, the population of the county is increasing, why do our taxes continue to increase?

I recall hearing the same thing. But then again they may be talking about the 'underserved, underbanked, undereducated and underemployeed'. Cause Schenectady sure has it's fair share of them. And it just goes to prove why Schenectady has so many government funded programs out there.

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fastest-growing counties in the entire Northeast,

The northeast WHAT?

If Schenectady is the fastest growing, I'd *REALLY* hate to be living in some of the other areas like Saratoga, Burnt Hills, Clifton Park, Albany, etc.

they meant fastest growing welfare population probably, indeed.