March 3, 2015
HORNELL, NY – The deal on the future of St. James Hospital has been finalized.
After hearing from both Rochester General and Strong during meetings held on Tuesday, the board of directors at St. James decided to go with Strong Memorial.
According to unnamed sources, the St. James Board of Directors has voted unanimously to go with the University of Rochester-Strong Memorial Hospital,
but with some major concessions from the University of Rochester.
Originally, Strong Memorial had said that there would be no long term care beds when they took control of the hospital. This was a major sticking point with Mayor Shawn Hogan and others who pushed for in-patient beds, and not only a few beds to be kept for patients who were being held overnight, before being transferred to Dansville or Wellsville. Apparently, there will now be 10 observation beds and 10 longer stay beds.
And what about the maternity ward that Strong wished to close originally? University of Rochester/Strong has agreed to restudy that issue.
The full details of what has been worked out will be released in future days and weeks. But for now, what we know is this: as a result of much opposition to shutting down in-patient care, that the U of R has agreed to keep a total of 20 beds, and this is considered to be a major victory by many.
