SUFFOLK COUNTY HEALTH CARE CORPORATION

Save “John J. Foley” appears on dozens of T Shirts, worn by the employees, family members, and residents of the 264 bed Skilled Nursing Care Facility located in Yaphank.  In the latest version of multiple prior efforts to sack the facility, and either close, sell it, or significantly downsize it, the Suffolk County Executive has brokered a sale of 14 acres of land and the 171,000 square foot state of the art health care center for about $15 million dollars net to the County.

In an effort to move in a different direction, State Senator Brian Foley has agreed to sponsor legislation in the New York state Senate that would allow for the creation of the Suffolk County Health Care Corporation (SCHCC), for the purpose of taking possession of Foley, as well as all of Suffolk’s network of outpatient primary care, mental health, and drug and alcohol abuse clinics and programs.  “The John J. Foley Skilled Nursing Facility provides an invaluable service for members of our community who cannot care for themselves,” said Senator Brian X. Foley (D - Blue Point).  “When my father and others first conceived of the idea of this particular facility, they had in mind that it would be a public facility that would provide the highest level of care possible.  I and others have remained steadfast in our fight to maintain it as a public entity dedicated to treating our sick residents.  We need to safeguard the mission of this facility by sponsoring legislation in the state senate that will create a public benefit corporation for the facility and allow it to continue to serve the public in the way it was intended to.  I ask the County Executive to withhold judgment until such time as the legislature undertakes a review of this viable alternative.”

Responding to a bi partisan request made by Presiding Officer Bill Lindsay and 12^th Legislative District legislator John M. Kennedy Jr., Senator Foley embraced the concept of revitalizing Suffolk County’s health care delivery system, at a time when more than 280,000 visits were delivered in 2008.  “Many of these patients are those most in need in Suffolk County, and rely upon our network of service delivery, including both the short term rehab, as well as the longer term residential care at John J. Foley” said Kennedy.  “We can achieve the County Executive’s stated goal of realizing much needed revenue for the 2011 operating budget, while keeping important public assets in public hands,” Kennedy said.

Many have said that Suffolk County’s health department is ill suited to operate this critical network of primary health care, because of its own inability to rapidly respond to today’s quickly changing health care environment.  We wholeheartedly agree, and point to the success with Nassau’s effort which has allowed A. Holly Patterson to move from red to black in a relatively short period of time.  We can achieve similar savings, and realize substantially increased rates of reimbursement for the gamut of services provided, while allowing staffs to more realistically mirror the compensation packages afforded to health care personnel throughout the rest of the region. In fact, some 160 of Foley’s 200 plus employees filed a petition agreeing to work rule concessions in an effort to keep the facility at the same high level of quality care it presently enjoys.  They realize that they must respond to the realities of economic hardships, while maintaining a work environment that allows our veterans, frail elderly, and those most in need with a dignified care delivery system, not one driven by phantom staff, absent management, and a radius of over 75 miles in which to ship those patients that don’t fit the prospective purchasers “economic profile.”

Both Stony Brook University Medical Center and Brookhaven Memorial Hospital have expressed an interest in establishing the critical collaborative operating Agreements with SCHCC.  They seek to partner with this business endeavor, making it a fiscally sound, operationally viable, cost savings method of care delivery.  By adding the balance of Suffolk’s clinics, we will enhance the eligibility for Federally Qualified Health Center status, and will reap multiple benefits, including important Federal Tort Claims Act protection, freeing the County from costly Medical Malpractice liability. 

Most importantly, this effort once and for all provides a viable alternative to the outright sale.  “We ask the County Executive to partner with the Legislature and Senator Foley’s office in working towards a more amicable, cost efficient, and tax payer friendly type of a solution regarding Suffolk County’s future role in the delivery of health care services.  The wasting of municipal assets is far from a fiscally conservative stance. Other governmental entities throughout the Country have collaborated under this model very successfully, and have improved the delivery of care.  We in government, working together, need to be able to do the same, not only for the more than 150,000 county Medicaid recipients, but for the thousands of uninsured throughout Suffolk.