Hospital, Community Leaders

Must Confer On Bassett’s Future

Editorial For the Edition of Thursday-Friday, Dec. 11-12, 2014

The future of hospitals is murky, certainly to the general public (and general newspapers), perhaps even to the experts at One Atwell Road, Cooperstown, who are paid to think about it and react to their best estimations. We may reach a point where hospitals struggle to find enough talented doctors capable of doing the most skilled work. However, as long as there are professional recruiting services such as avidian in the medical industry, there should be a sufficient number of talented doctors at our hospitals

It doesn’t take a fevered imagination, however, to conclude that Bassett Hospital and its presence in Otsego County – Oneonta’s Fox included – won’t be the same 10 years from now as it is today.

Earlier this year, an e-mail from Dr. Vance Brown, Bassett’s new president/CEO, suggested it might make sense to shift pediatrics and some other specialties from Cooperstown to Oneonta. Then, earlier this month, the hospital announced it is moving 40 tech-support jobs into a downtown Utica office building, and plans to shift 125 in all over the next five years.

That’s the equivalent of a 125-job plant closing.

Bassett has been saying its strategic plan is seven years old, largely not implemented because of the impact it would have had on its Cooperstown neighborhood. And a new one is not yet ready.

The lack of such a plan, it seems, isn’t preventing action.

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At the end of September, Bassett’s Cooperstown neighbors filled the Village Board meeting with bodies and strong objections to a proposed “hospital zone,” fearful such a designation would simplify approval of any hospital projects.

In particular, fears were voiced that a “dormitory” is planned for the 20 students here part of the year through the Bassett-Columbia Presbyterian medical school, which aims to train physicians interested in practicing in rural settings.

A few weeks later, Jane Forbes Clark, who chairs the Bassett trustees’ facilities committee, Dr. Brown, and Jonathan Flyte, vice president/facilities planning, convened a meeting in the hospital’s Clark Auditorium to hear neighbors’ concerns, and such sensible, doable ideas as replacing gasoline-run shuttle buses with quieter, cleaner electric ones were discussed. The neighbors were praiseful.

Such positive outreach should be welcomed by all. But the concerns of neighbors – a couple of dozen households, compared to 24,000 countywide – shouldn’t stifle the larger question:

Are Cooperstown and Otsego County doing enough to create optimum circumstances wherein a Bassett system, headquartered locally, can continue to thrive?

(While we’re at it, whatever housing situation is optimum for med students, who may practice here after graduation, is what they should get.)

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The Village of Cooperstown spent 18 months studying what became the controversial “hospital zone” proposal, but officials involved say they have little idea of Bassett’s vision for the future. That’s getting the horse-drawn ambulance before the horse.

In explaining the Utica initiative, it was noted that the new location would allow collaboration with local colleges – SUNY/IT, Utica College and USC, presumably – to ensure Bassett can hire the needed tech-support personnel. We have a SUNY campus, Hartwick College and a USC branch. Why didn’t those conversations happen here?

And parking! Frequently, patients can’t find it around the Cooperstown hospital. And 200 spaces for employee parking were recently moved from behind the Clark Sports Center, where an expansion is planned, to Gary Enck’s former Corvette dealership in Hartwick Seminary; for nurses and technicians commuting from Schoharie or Ilion, that adds 20 minutes at each day’s beginning and end. If parking can’t work for patients or staff, something’s got to give. Please, build a deck.

The late Oneonta Mayor Dick Miller, who, among other things, had served on a hospital board in the Rochester area, believed the successful healthcare system of the future will need to serve a population of 1.2 million. Bassett’s eight counties comprise about half that. And there’s the more populous Mohawk Valley, waiting, waiting.

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This is clear: Bassett, the county’s largest employer, its convenient and well-regarded healthcare services are among the county’s signature assets, is exploring options beyond Cooperstown and Otsego County.

Perhaps it should. Perhaps it must. But we should expect our community leaders, in Cooperstown, Oneonta and Otsego County, to be fully up to speed on the pressures Bassett is facing, and doing what they can – whatever they can – to ensure the healthcare system’s presence here is as robust as possible for as long as possible.

Mayor Katz, Mayor Southard, county board Chair Kathy Clark – find out how we can achieve that. Dr. Brown, bring the community into this critical conversation.

At this point, let’s not ask what Bassett can do for us, but what we can do for Bassett.