St. Elizabeth, Faxton St. Luke’s get grants for affiliation process

UTICA — St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC) and Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare (FSLH) will use separate $50,000 grants to help pay for legal and consultant services in their affiliation project.

The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties, Inc. awarded the funding to both hospitals, SEMC announced this week.

“Our strategic plans focus on meeting the needs of our community now and into the future.  The grant [funding] is a tremendous benefit to both organizations and helps us to defray some of the significant costs that come with this type of collaboration,” Scott Perra, president and CEO of FSLH, said in a Jan. 8 news release.

Norman Siegel, chair of SEMC’s board of trustees, concurred.

“In these challenging economic times for healthcare, we have an obligation to area residents to ensure the long-term fiscal health of both St. Elizabeth and Faxton St. Luke’s while continuing to meet our collective mission,” Siegel said.

SEMC and FSLH on Dec. 13 announced they had moved “several steps closer” to their proposed affiliation agreement in the preceding two months.

The New York State Project Review Committee of the Public Health and Health Planning Council (PHHPC) on Dec. 12 approved the affiliation proposal, SEMC said.

The PHHPC endorsed the proposal during a Nov. 21 meeting with officials from FSLH and SEMC.

The hospitals on Dec. 11 also reached an agreement with the New York State Attorney General’s office to settle concerns that their proposed affiliation would adversely affect competition in the health-care market in the Utica–Rome region.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com