Montefiore Health System plans to close its Mount Vernon hospital and invest $41 million to build an emergency department and ambulatory care center, officials said Tuesday.
Upon completion of the 40,000-square-foot healthcare complex on Sanford Boulevard, the 121-bed hospital will close. Montefiore expects construction to be completed by the end of next year. It still must receive state Department of Health approval for the project.
The hospital will be replaced by the emergency department and medical offices for primary and specialty care. Patients who need to be admitted for a hospital stay will be treated at other facilities.
"Our new site puts patients first, reflects best practices in healthcare and ensures Mount Vernon residents have high-quality care for years to come," Montefiore Chief Strategy Officer Lynn Richmond said in a statement.
Through a spokesman, Montefiore officials declined to be interviewed. The spokesman could not immediately comment on the status of the hospital's employees, some of whom are represented by the New York State Nurses Association and 1199SEIU.
Montefiore Health System, which has its flagship hospital in the Bronx, has expanded aggressively in the Hudson Valley. It has taken over management of hospitals in Cornwall, New Rochelle, Nyack, Newburgh, and White Plains. It is negotiating to add St. John's Riverside Hospital in Yonkers.
Montefiore acquired Mount Vernon in 2013 as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection proceedings of Sound Shore Health System. At the time it also added Sound Shore's New Rochelle campus. Last year Montefiore Mount Vernon lost $23.5 million from operations, according to audited financial statements. The hospital for years has received tens of millions in grants from the state to support its operations.
The Mount Vernon project will be funded, in part, through a grant from the Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program, which provides money to organizations to modernize their facilities, expand their services, pay off debt or become more financially sustainable.
Nearby hospitals include Montefiore New Rochelle, Montefiore Medical Center's Wakefield campus in the Bronx and New York–Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville.
Services at the new center will include primary care, mental healthcare, specialty care, pediatrics, chronic disease management, wound care and imaging services. Its emergency department will include equipment for cardiac diagnosis and monitoring as well as an X-ray machine and CT scanner.
More healthcare services have shifted to the less expensive outpatient setting in recent years as advancements in medicine have made long hospital stays less necessary. Mount Sinai Health System, for example, is investing in outpatient medical offices and a behavioral health center in Manhattan and reducing the size of Mount Sinai Beth Israel from 683 beds, of which less than half are in use, to 70 beds and an emergency department.
"Montefiore to close Mount Vernon hospital, build emergency facility" was originally published in Crain's New York Business.
