Beacon medical center struggles to stay open

By Maeleeke J. Lavan
Poughkeepsie Journal

 

A.J. Soto/ Poughkeepsie Journal Saint Francis Medical Walk-In Center of Beacon has been open for 10 years.

BEACON -- A shortage of patients and rules regarding reimbursement from insurance companies are endangering the viability of Beacon's Medical Walk-In Center.

''It's a wonderful program, and the staff has done a wonderful job, but we cannot stay busy enough,'' said Robert Savage, president of St. Francis Hospital in the Town of Poughkeepsie, which operates the center.

Because some insurance companies don't apply the same payment schedules to the walk-in center as to other clinics, reimbursement rates are low, which has exacerbated financial problems at the center.

Open weekdays 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends noon to 8 p.m., the walk-in center on Hastings Drive is a place for people to go if they can't get to their primary physician or if their injuries aren't serious enough to require emergency-room care.

Losses hit hard

But the center has lost about $250,000 each of the last two years, and St. Francis is looking for ways to make the center pay for itself. The center has also had difficulty keeping a physician's position filled to assist nurse practitioners at the center.

The Medical Walk-In Center has been open for about 10 years and serves about 400 people a month.

''We're actively approaching physicians and trying to find ways to keep the center open,'' George Prisco, director of community relations at St. Francis, said.

He said no date for closure has been set. ''We always like to try to be as optimistic as possible.''

But if a means of making the center financially viable can't be found, the center could close as soon as this summer.

Savage said the number of patients has dropped significantly in the past few years.

''We're trying to find ways to build services and respond to the community, but there needs to be a kind of critical mass of service,'' Savage said. ''We haven't been able to maintain that.''

Savage and Prisco said St. Francis has been working with Beacon officials to try to find physicians to work in the center and are actively working to find other ways to meet financial needs.

''We've talked with Mayor (Clara Lou Gould) about just trying to help them with physician recruitment,'' Savage said.

Responses to recruitment efforts have not been promising.

Savage stressed that even as the hospital considers the necessity of closing the Beacon center, St. Francis is working to expand other needed services, including building a cancer center, expanding the orthopedic center and opening a joint-replacement center.