By CRAIG FREILICH

Hospital officials in Massena and Ogdensburg are concerned their communities could be deprived of economic strength and local health care if St. Lawrence Health Services follows through with plans consolidate and centralize St. Lawrence County medical care in Canton.

SLHS, which operates Canton-Potsdam and Gouverneur hospitals, this week purchased 270 acres on Route 11 in Canton, where it plans to construct medical offices for specialists and the hospital’s growing staff of medical providers. The location also allows for possible future construction of a centralized hospital for higher-cost services such as maternity, intensive care and specialized surgery.

But administrators at Massena Memorial Hospital and Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center in Ogdensburg are concerned that the idea of creating a single regional hospital in the county and centralizing care in Canton could leave Ogdensburg and Massena without good local care and with a lot of unemployed people, they say.

“At Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, we have come to understand the importance of viable community healthcare institutions not only in the provision of care, but also as economic engines for our local communities,” new president and CEO Nate Howell said a prepared statement.

Howell said he is “impressed” with SLHS CEO David B. Acker’s “read of the challenges facing healthcare institutions in the North Country. This stated, our crystal ball is cloudy at best. It is clear to us that our healthcare institutions will need to do a better job working together to find ways to cut costs to maintain and improve quality healthcare delivery in the North Country.”

In a statement, MMH officials said their hospital, “along with Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, are one of the larger employers in their respective communities and the county.” The statement continued, “The conceptual idea of building a centralized hospital has not been evaluated by the key healthcare leaders and their Board of Directors.”

Acker said the opportunity to acquire the Canton property came at a time when growth at both Canton-Potsdam Hospital and the CPH medical office complex in Canton is stretching “the physical limits of those facilities.” He added that “providing certain services more centrally in Canton also provides improved access to specialty care for our patients in the Gouverneur area.”

Massena hospital officials, in response to Acker’s announcement, said conversations about collaboration and affiliations among the county’s major health care providers are continuing, but right now most hospitals are concentrating on the state directive programs that promote “community-level collaborations and focus on system reform.”

MMH, which has been struggling financially in recent years, employs over 400, along with over 50 physicians and their office staff. “Today as a community hospital, we provide access to a broad array of vital health care services to our community 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This record of service is and always will be a hospital’s most valuable contribution to the public,” the statement from MMH said.

“But less often recognized is the hospital’s contribution to the local economy, such as the people it employs, the impact of its spending, and the impact of its employees’ spending and the taxes they pay. Massena Memorial Hospital is critical to the economic viability of our community. It is a major source of employment and purchaser of goods and services, as well as providing health care that allows people to be productive citizens.”

MMH also pointed to over $35 million spent over the last decade in new equipment, new services and adding healthcare professionals and physicians.

“This provides economic spin off to the local businesses, industries and restaurants in the area. To minimize the economic impact to each individual community of their local hospital must be taken into account,” the MMH statement said.

“At Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center, we have come to understand the importance of viable community healthcare institutions not only in the provision of care, but also as economic engines for our local communities,” Howell said in his statement.

“We have defined ‘quality healthcare’ as access to specialty services as well as access to the core community services including our emergency room, primary care, mental health services amongst others. Many of these services are not money-makers and to some extent are underwritten by other services at our hospital. As we are committed to the ongoing provision of these services to our community and the North Country, we need to maintain enough critical mass as an institution to do so effectively,” he said.

Howell said Claxton-Hepburn is “interested in developing collaborations and partnerships up to and potentially including long-term mergers and acquisitions. We have to look for economies of scale in an environment of decreasing revenue streams. This stated, to my knowledge, CHMC has not yet had the opportunity to provide input to the ‘grand plan’ that Mr. Acker is proposing, and I have concerns about the plan’s trickle down effects on our core services and our local economy.

“Furthermore, while I firmly believe that our North Country hospitals need to work together to shave costs and improve services, I am not convinced that we need to invest in an additional $200 million facility to achieve this goal. These are all things that we look forward to discussing further,” Howell said.

Since 2008, Canton-Potsdam Hospital has seen its medical staff grow from 55 to 115 full-time providers. Since beginning in January of 2013, Canton-Potsdam Hospital has added 20 new full-time physicians and 15 new full-time mid-level providers.

In the last few years, the hospital bought the former St. Mary’s School in Potsdam and has refitted it as medical offices with room for specialty services, such as physical therapy. It has also added onto the former E.J. Noble Hospital in Canton, providing space for medical practices and services there.

“The need for additional medical offices and outpatient procedure space to accommodate these new physicians, as well as those which will be added over the next several years, drove this decision,” said Acker of the Canton purchase.

The property, known as the McCollum Farm, lies primarily on the north side of Route 11 near the Village of Canton.

SLHS was established in December 2013 after Canton-Potsdam Hospital’s purchase of struggling E.J. Noble Hospital in Gouverneur “for the purpose of serving as a catalyst for the improved coordination and quality of health care services in St. Lawrence County.”

Acker first publicly described his vision of centralized health care in St. Lawrence County during a June interview with North Country Public Radio. That story is available at www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/22233/20130624/why-there-will-be-fewer-hospitals-in-the-north-country