SCHENECTADY — More than a year after St. Peter’s Health Partners took over some management operations at Ellis Medicine ahead of a potential merger between the two organizations, a coalition of advocates opposed to the unification have launched a survey seeking input on how services at the Schenectady hospital system have been impacted.
The Schenectady Coalition for Healthcare Access launched the survey this week in the hopes of gaining a better understanding about how the management services agreement finalized in November 2021 has affected services at Ellis Medicine, including its Bellevue Women’s Center and the McClellan Street campus, according to a news release.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what St. Peter’s is taking over as they merge with Ellis under this MSA and the uncertainty is cause for concern,” Arthur Butler, a founding member of a coalition, said in a statement. “The survey is intended to unearth whether they are still meeting community needs. Our community hospital should be focusing on meeting people where they are. Otherwise, people get left further behind. Cuts and changes to services will affect those residents that don’t have anywhere else to go for care.”
The confidential survey, available on the coalition’s website (saveourhealthservices.org) is open to anyone who has visited Ellis Medicine in the past year and is available through Feb. 15.
Michelle Ostrelich, a coalition cofounder and county legislator who chairs the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee, said that coalition members have heard an assortment of stories from residents seeking services, including those pertaining to increased emergency room wait times — an issue she acknowledged is not unique to Ellis — but is hoping the survey will paint a better picture of what exactly is happening amid ongoing merger talks, that have happened mostly behind closed doors.
“We’ve heard upsetting stories, but we’ve also heard really positive stories of care there, so we are honestly looking for everything to see how people are being treated and if they are getting the care they need in our community,” she said. “That’s always been our focus. Are we getting the care that we need here, because we know there are people who won’t or can’t travel anywhere else to get their hospital-based care.”
Philip Schwartz, a spokesperson for Ellis Medicine, said Tuesday there were no new details on the merger, which was delayed to give Ellis time to improve its financial standing, but said the hospital system is looking forward to reviewing the survey results, which will help inform the hospital’s outreach efforts.
“It’s a very challenging environment in health care but we’re seeing progress under our agreements with St. Peter’s. Right now, we’re executing on our plans together that we outlined more than a year ago,” Schwartz said in a statement.
Plans of the merger were first announced in 2020, and have received fierce pushback from advocates, who have raised concerns that the move would spell the end of certain services, including abortion, tubal ligation and access to contraceptives.
SPHP is owned by Trinity Health, a Catholic health care system that operates under religious doctrine that prohibits such procedures.
Under the current management service agreement — adopted in lieu of a complete merger so Ellis could improve its financial standing — those services remain in place, with doctors usually referring patients to outside clinics, but Ostrelich said the merger would put an end to the practice if finalized, making it unclear how patients would receive care.
A similar situation played out in Troy, when Samaritin Hospital, a St. Peter’s affiliate, took over the Burdett Birth Center over a decade ago. Plans were in place to maintain reproductive health care on one floor of the hospital, but were later dissolved for financial reasons.
“There’s ample evidence that once a merger with a Catholic hospital or health-care system happens, reproductive care changes drastically,” Ostrelich said.
She raised concerns about 170 advance care providers at Ellis being placed under the management of St. Peter’s in 2021, which put them under the Catholic hospital’s religious doctrine, and was critical of the lack of transparency around merger talks.
Ostrelich also drew parallels to Ellis Medicine’s decision to close its dental practice, which sent thousands of patients scrambling to find services. Better communication, she said, would have prevented such a situation — a lesson she hopes Ellis Medicine keeps in mind moving forward.
“Knowing ahead of time and being able to prepare for the cuts ahead of us is really, really important to our community,” she said. “It’s not just we want to complain and fight against a merger. We want to help. We want to make sure that our community has all of the needs met here.”
Contact reporter Chad Arnold at: [email protected] or by calling 518-395-3120.
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