Advocates and residents rallied Wednesday night to fight the proposed closure of Burdett Birth Center.
Hundreds of people gathered at Hudson Valley Community College for a public forum with officials from St. Peter’s Health Partners to discuss their concerns over the proposed closure of Burdett Birth Center on June 30.
St. Peter’s Health Partners has cited an operating loss and staffing concerns in its decision to close the center. It differs from traditional labor and delivery units by approaching low-risk births collaboratively with patients, midwifes, and obstetricians.
Supporters warn it would leave no birth centers in Rensselaer County, meaning patients would have to drive up to an hour to access the same care elsewhere.
Many echoed similar concerns regarding access, quality of care, high c-section rates at other providers, and the impacts of consolidation.
Ashley Saupp is an organizer with the Save Burdett Birth Center and had her son at Burdett a year ago.
Reading from the proposed closure plan submitted to the state Department of Health in December, Saupp says she will not let up.
“In a state with a serious infant and mortality disparity, and especially for black mothers, many of whom experience issues of transportation as a barrier, why on earth would that be a proposed policy to address the transportation issues,” Saupp said. “And anyone reading this with even a vague understanding of our community makeup and the risks related to high intervention births know this targets the most vulnerable amongst us.”
For nearly three hours, St. Peter’s executives fielded questions from opponents of the plan.
Local officials joined the chorus, saying they do not fault the hospital’s local leadership. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, a Republican, claimed St. Peter’s is taking orders from a corporation, Trinity Health, that doesn’t understand the community.
“They came out of the blocks with their minds made up,” McLaughlin said. “They were less than forthcoming every single step of the way with information and the information we did get was not accurate many times it was flat out wrong many times. And it was deceptive many times. So, I'm not at all happy and that that isn't to say that there's not good people at St. Peter's Health Care, there is there's a lot of great people locally that work there.”
St. Peter’s president and CEO Dr. Steven Hanks says the forum further shined a light on the community’s concerns, and the executive board plans to take the feedback into consideration.
“We're always gonna have internal conversation,” Hanks said. “If we weren't willing to do that, we wouldn't of have this forum. Right. So, we're listening. We are going to have some more conversation within our team. We're hearing the commitment that the community has to the Burdett Birth Center. We have to marry that with our reality of how are we going to, you know, continue to put ourselves on a sustainable path to be able to preserve a broad array of services.”
Nurses from across the region took the floor to discuss the impact a closure could have on neighboring healthcare facilities. Dawn Zipp, a NICU nurse at Bellevue Women’s Hospital in Schenectady, says closing the Rensselaer County facility would leave several counties at a loss and further strain others.
“When you say you're not going to do something, about five years later, it comes down with a gavel,” Zipp said. “We are aware of the way management works within St. Peter's and Trinity Health Care System. I am going to say this, I am kind of appalled at some of the statements here, we all know that you are level three and there is a specialty that you guys bring to the table that the lower levels need. And now when you close a facility with a lower level, you are now going to inundate your patient population and take beds away from patients that require that level of care.”
Hanks says the proposed closure was not a sudden decision. Hanks says when Burdett was created and funded to be a free-standing entity in 2011, the Department of Health warned of declining birth rates and would only issue the facility a five-year operating license, which was then renewed for three years in 2016. Then, when the pandemic hit, the facility was being funded through crucial CARES Act funding.
Kenneth Baker, St. Peter’s Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, says the transition plan preserves prenatal care in Troy, and even after the closure of Burdett, the Samaritan Hospital emergency room will remain open to mothers in labor. Baker says the closure of the birth center would not only reduce the hospital’s costs but improve its continuum of care.
“I've been meeting with the midwives regularly since we made the decision to transition the birth center over to St. Peter's and we are working with them collaboratively to bring everything they do at for debt to our location on Manning Boulevard,” Baker said.
Republican Troy Mayor Carmella Mantello says she fears for the future of other healthcare facilities in the city.
“There really has been no effort to try to put money in the budget to avoid this closure. This is just not acceptable. And as you know, as the chief elected the city of Tory, my other fear is that it doesn't end with Burdett,” Mantello said.
On the same day as the hearing, St. Peter’s sued state Attorney General Tish James to halt a probe of the closure. The state Department of Health still needs to give final approval for the closure.
The Attorney General’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
