NORWICH – Facing tremendous state and federal funding cuts and a $5 million gap between revenues and expenditures, United Health Services (UHS) Chenango Memorial Hospital announced Monday that on Jan. 1, it will close the doors of its walk-in center.
The UHS Walk-In Center, located at 4 Newton Ave. in Norwich, has been a place to turn for immediate medical attention for people who can’t schedule an appointment with a primary care provider. Anyone in need of medical attention for urgent medical needs will be directed to the emergency room at UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital, adjacent to the walk-in clinic. Anyone with less urgent needs such as aches, coughs, colds, minor burns and cuts, nausea, rashes, sore throat and sprains can call the UHS primary care office, where same-day appointments are available.
“This change is in response to state and federal budget cuts,” stated UHS President and CEO Dr. Drake Lamen. “We made this decision after weighing many options. Instead of cutting other services, positions, benefits or salaries, we have chosen to re-direct patients to the appropriate site for services already in place.”
The UHS Walk-In Center sees between 8,500 and 9,000 patients per year, many of whom are unable to schedule a same-day appointment with their regular doctor. According to Lamen, only a third of those visits are Chenango Memorial patients with UHS primary care doctors and nearly 3,000 people who visit the walk-in each year have primary care providers who are not part of the UHS health care system.
Consolidating services will allow UHS Chenango Memorial to shift more focus on its primary care services, Lamen said. UHS is currently welcoming new patients and will extend its primary care office hours to meet the inevitable influx of patients following the closure of the walk-in center. In addition, the facility is striving to provide timely medical attention to patients visiting the ER. “We have been working to cut time from when someone gets to the ER to the time they see a provider to about half and hour,” said Lamen, citing approximately 70 percent of ER admissions in the last year who were able to see a doctor within 30 minutes.
UHS Chenango Memorial is also working to reduce the number of patients who are unnecessarily admitted to the ER. In the last two years, Lamen pointed out ER admissions have decreased by nearly 2,000, thanks in part to good follow-up plans from primary physicians.
Although UHS anticipates more than $1 million in annual savings by closing the walk-in, the agency says no employees will be laid off in the process, nor will there be cuts to employees’ benefits or salaries. However, the hospital is facing between $2 and $4 million per year over the next ten years in state and federal funding cuts to Medicare services. “Much of those cuts have to do with caps in Medicaid,” said Lamen. “There is significant pressure on revenue for healthcare organizations going forward. We are trying to respond to that pressure.”
Said Lamen, “We at UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital continue to encourage all area residents to establish themselves and their family members with a primary care provider so they will receive consistent preventive services as well as sick-care.”
UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital is a member of UHS, a locally owned, not-for-profit, 916-bed hospital and health care system serving the Greater Binghamton region from more than 60 locations around New York’s Southern Tier.