FULTON, NY – The head of the Lee Memorial Hospital board of directors says while Oswego Health has decided not to pursue an affiliation, the possibilities are far from over. He stressed, too, that Lee is not closing June 30.”There is not direction, nor is Lee Memorial going to close June 30,” Richard Abbott said. “We will continue to pursue a partnership agreement with a Syracuse hospital.”
Abbott said that Lee Memorial had a meeting Thursday with the state Department of Health and Oswego Health. Thursday evening, Oswego Health released a statement that said it has concluded that “it cannot and will not pursue an affiliation with Lee at this time.”
Abbott noted, however, that the statement released by Oswego Health indicates that Lee will be closing June 30. He noted, however, that it did not include any information that came out of the session with the Department of Health.
“The release (from Oswego Health) assumes that the hospital closes June 30 and indicates that there is no time to do due diligence by July 1,” Abbott said. “They were in the meeting with us and chose not to include the information from that meeting.”
Abbott said that the health department indicated that if an agreement can be reached, Lee Memorial can continue to operate. He pointed out, too, that it has not been the Department of Health’s direction for Lee to close since the Berger Commission’s first release in late 2006 when it said that Lee would be converted to an outpatient and urgent care facility.
“We’ve been arguing that for 18 months on and off,” Abbott said. In late May, Abbott said the health department’s direction was to come to some type of agreement or, at some point, acute care services would be discontinued.
“We do have some time,” Abbott said, noting that the Department of Health has indicated there is flexibility in the June 30 deadline.
“That is the clear understanding that we have,” Abbott said. “There isn’t going to be a shut-down order June 30.
“We will be operating July 1; business as usual,” Abbott added. “We will also continue to have talks with the Department of Health and a partnering hospital.”
Abbott said Lee Memorial has had preliminary talks with both St. Joseph’s and Crouse hospitals in Syracuse.
“We’ve had preliminary discussions with both,” he said. “Those discussions are about a week old at this point.”
The meeting with the department of health provided more clarification on things that would be expected through an affiliation agreement, he added.
“Our next action is to get back to those hospitals for follow up discussions,” Abbott said. “The Department of Health is aware that we were already in those discussions as a ‘plan B’ in case Oswego Health was not interested in moving forward with an affiliation.”
Abbott said he is hopeful that one or both of the two Syracuse hospitals will be interested in pursuing a partnership agreement. Once that fleshed out, he said that Lee and the partnering hospital would present the agreement to the Department of Health jointly.
“Once the intent is known, we will pursue more substantive discussions with the Department of Health,” Abbott added.
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