The critical care unit at Bradford Regional Medical Center will be shutting its doors on Monday, officials announced Thursday.
“The unit had received no critically ill patients recently, making it a sound, strategic time to implement this phase of the transition,” read a release from the hospital system.
In January, officials with Upper Allegheny Health System announced plans to move surgery and critical care services from BRMC to Olean (N.Y.) General Hospital, while moving services like occupational health and the sleep lab to Bradford. The plan is to create Centers of Excellence in each community without duplicating services.
Jeff Zewe, RN, president and CEO of Upper Allegheny Health System, said the transition team that has been working on this has been able to lessen the number of job losses to the extent that approximately 70% of impacted employees have been able to secure positions elsewhere within the hospital system. Some have retired or left for jobs elsewhere, and Zewe said some have been offered other positions or options for severance packages instead.
“We do not have a specific number on the actual number of employees who will not have positions because we are still waiting for responses from several employees regarding position offers and/or severance options,” he said, when asked by The Era on Thursday. He did confirm that most impacted employees are the ones from the Bradford hospital.
“Because the consolidation is essentially from Bradford to Olean, by and large the positions affected are BRMC positions,” Zewe said.
“Two thirds of the BRMC employees who accepted new positions are staying at BRMC,” he added. “The others will be working at OGH.”
He continued, “Keep in mind people have been offered and accepted other positions, retired, or left the organization to accept jobs elsewhere. In the end we expect the number of people who opt for severance will be extremely small, perhaps less than a dozen.”
It’s been a top priority from the beginning to minimize the impact on employees, Zewe said.
There have been challenges to the large-scale organizational change, like finding a way to address transportation issues for patients needing services in one community, but living in the other.
Zewe said a creative solution has been developed, but declined to give specifics. In general terms, he confirmed, “This will be a new transportation partnership created specifically to serve BRMC/OGH patients and visitors. The health system is bearing the cost and there will be no cost to riders. We expect to make a formal announcement in the coming days.”
The January announcement from hospital officials was met with community outcry, yet officials continued with the plan, saying a dwindling population, inadequate reimbursements, rising costs and aging infrastructure made it a necessity to consolidate services.
Zewe assured The Era that hospital officials are listening to the communities. In fact, community advisory committees have been created in Olean and in Bradford.
Officials explained the committees are volunteers representing a cross section of people from business and industry, non-profit, government, education and community organizations. For now they are meeting monthly but will likely shift to quarterly meetings.
“We need additional eyes and ears in the community to accomplish the important work of providing healthcare to the people served by our hospitals,” Zewe said. “We have invited approximately 20 people to serve on the Bradford committee and 20 to serve on the Olean committee. The Bradford group met earlier this month. The Olean committee will meet for the first time in the coming weeks.
“Success of our transformation plans is critical to the future of the region and clearly we need to do a better job of gaining insight, seeking community input and networking in the months and years ahead,” the hospital’s CEO said.
“The Advisory Committees will provide UAHS leadership with counsel, feedback, skills and knowledge and provide us with objective opinion and unbiased insights. An Advisory Committee member can be a tremendous influence and complement to the effectiveness of our work.”
The hospital’s plan calls for the Bradford campus to continue to offer emergency care, outpatient services, behavioral health and long-term care/rehab (Pavilion services). BRMC and OGH will also continue to grow their expansive network of primary care and specialty providers. Essentially all services with the exception of surgery and the CCU will continue at the BRMC campus.
The Olean campus will continue to provide its interventional cardiac catheterization laboratory — which operates jointly with Kaleida Health’s Gates Vascular Institute — as well as its neurology program and stroke center, ICU intensivist program, radiation oncology, vascular services, orthopedic surgery, dialysis services and wound care, including hyperbaric therapy.
Anyone with questions regarding the location of doctors or services, should reach out to them directly and well in advance of need / appointment to confirm the details of the visit.
