MASSENA --The Massena Town Council voted to hire a national healthcare consultant to plan a strategy for Massena Memorial Hospital to stay open and be financially viable for in the future.

In a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, the town council voted 5-0 to hire Newpoint Healthcare Advisors. The five-month contract is intended to determine a direction for the hospital, identify potential partners to work with the town and the hospital, develop terms for a potential partnership, and eventually negotiate and complete a transition to keep the hospital open.

The five-month contract with Newpoint calls for the consultant to be paid $12,000 per month.

“Our intent is to move the hospital forward as quickly as possible. Newpoint will help us do that by answering the questions that have arisen over the past few months. Questions like does it make sense to convert MMH to a critical access hospital, can the hospital receive additional revenue functioning as a different entity, how can a public hospital partner with private hospitals, etc. We need these questions answered,” Town Supervisor Joseph D. Gray said.

The town has been in negotiations with Newpoint Chairman Joseph Lupica for several weeks. Lupica, a native of Rome, is a veteran healthcare advisor who is familiar with Massena, the North Country and the rest of the state.

The company’s website says Lupica has “served a variety of nonprofit, corporate and public-sector clients providing governance advice, affiliation development, and scenario planning.”

“The Town Council sees Mr. Lupica as an independent third party who can sort through our current situation at MMH, analyze our options and give us a clear direction for the hospital’s future. He will begin work immediately and it is our hope that we will soon have enough solid, objective information to make a decision,” Gray said.