Lewis County General Hospital to affiliate with St. Joseph’s in Syracuse

LOWVILLE — Lewis County General Hospital (LCGH) in Lowville on Thursday announced plans to affiliate with St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse.

The LCGH board of managers on Thursday voted to authorize the hospital to enter “exclusive” negotiations to develop a “beneficial collaborative arrangement between both facilities,” LCGH said in a news release.

The board decision follows more than a year of LCGH consideration of options for affiliating with a larger regional system to “strengthen” local services and secure clinical support for specialized services, the Lewis County hospital said.

St. Joseph’s had submitted a proposal for LCGH to consider, the Lowville facility added.

LCGH intends to explore “a wide range of topics” with St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, Michael Young, president of the LCGH board of directors, said in the news release.

“Our objective is to improve upon the already excellent healthcare we offer inside Lewis County’s service area and explore a relationship that will help us meet Lewis County’s healthcare needs far into the future. We’ll be approaching discussions with St. Joseph’s Hospital with open minds,” Young said.

Young also went on to “stress” that certain objectives were “likely to be critical.”

“We want to preserve existing patterns of healthcare in the community. We want to become a more sustainable driver of the local economy. We want to retain our employees, our name, autonomous governance and our county-owned status. And the Board is confident that with St. Joseph’s Hospital, we can make these things happen,” Young said.

The goal is to retain county-owned status and “enhance” the services offered in Lewis County while retaining employment under a “financially sustainable model,” Eric Burch, CEO of Lewis County General Hospital, said in the news release.

“This relationship will allow us to meet our community’s healthcare needs for the long term. With the progress our employees and medical staff have made on quality and financial performance, we are now able to adapt to a challenging economic environment while expanding services and enhancing the quality of our care,” Burch said.

The LCGH physicians had been consulted before the board made a decision to proceed, Dr. Catherine Williams, the hospital’s medical director, said in the news release.

“Ultimately, we want to keep care close to home, and possibly even expand the services we can offer here, while establishing a seamless connection with the specialized services of a major medical center. If we can accomplish that, that’s good medicine, and we support it,” Williams said.

The intention is to help “bring about positive health-care changes” in rural upstate New York, Mark Murphy, senior vice president for system development and ambulatory care leadership for St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, said in the LCGH news release.

“Through this affiliation, we will provide management expertise that will allow the healthcare professionals in Lewis County to do what they do best … deliver high quality care to their patients,” Murphy said.

Leadership teams from both organizations will work to form a joint strategic plan and finalize the definitive affiliation and required regulatory-approval process, which is expected to take at least six months, LCGH said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com