Mount Vernon Hospital Supporters Picket, Hold Vigil

MOUNT VERNON, NY — Community leaders, elected officials, clergy, nurses, healthcare workers and residents picketed and held a candlelight vigil outside Mount Vernon Hospital Thursday to protest its scheduled closing this year.

Montefiore Health System plans to close the only hospital in Mount Vernon and replace it with a state-of-the-art emergency department and urgent care center.

Opponents say the loss of beds will be a loss of critical access to healthcare for city residents. Residents and community members said they faced persistent refusals by hospital management to reexamine their decision.

Tracy McCook, a registered nurse and member of the New York State Nurses Association, helped picket the hospital Thursday morning.

“I am an emergency room nurse and I have worked at Mount Vernon Hospital for 32 years. Every day I see patients coming into the hospital in dire need of critical care and attention," McCook told Patch. "Montefiore Health System is only allowing us to utilize 60-70 of the allotted 120 beds they claim we have available to use. Yesterday we were 90 percent full to the allotted capacity and the psychiatric unit was full with an overflow in the emergency room. Our community leans on us for help and unfortunately, we are under-staffed and the hospital was overflowing. Montefiore Health System is endangering the lives of Mount Vernon residents by taking away this critical resource and replacing it with an insufficient free-standing ER."

The City of Mount Vernon is a designated medically underserved area and was recently withdrawn from Health Professional Shortage Area status – something it could risk regaining if closing inpatients beds pushes affiliated clinical professionals out of the area, opponents said, adding that Mount Vernon residents need more healthcare services – not less.

The new, $41 million health care complex on Sandford Boulevard in Mount Vernon will include a state-of-the art Hospital-Based Off-Campus Emergency Department and comprehensive ambulatory care center, hospital officials said in a statement. It will be funded by a grant from New York State.

Under the plan, inpatient care and surgical services will go to nearby Montefiore locations such as New Rochelle, officials said. Patients who come to the Sandford Boulevard Emergency Room who require hospitalization will be transferred by an on-site ambulance to the most appropriate hospital for their condition—with the Sandford Boulevard site offering direct admission to Montefiore New Rochelle. In non-emergency situations, patients will be able to select the nearby hospital of their choice, officials said.

One of the hospitals that has transformed itself into a big regional system, Bronx-based Montefiore has added a lot of Hudson Valley facilities in recent years, including Nyack in Rockland County, Newburgh and Cornwall in Orange County, and New Rochelle, Mount Vernon and White Plains in Westchester. Mount Vernon loses money, according to Crain's New York Business.

Montefiore's announcement in October became an election issue in Mount Vernon. During her election campaign, Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard told Patch, "As a Mount Vernon resident, I am deeply alarmed that the only hospital in the city plans to close."