Hospitals see hundreds of clinic layoffs

A legislative bid to stave off closing of the Elsie Owens Health Center in Coram could lead to hundreds of layoffs at other clinics and tens of thousands of lost patient visits, according to new plans filed with Suffolk County.

Officials from hospitals that run some of the health centers are expected to testify in Hauppauge Tuesday about the draconian cuts they will have to impose to meet what in effect is a 40 percent cut in funding for the rest of the year.

The cutbacks come after the county legislature last month adopted a "share the pain" approach, imposing equal cuts on all six contract health centers. The legislative initiative reversed County Executive Steve Levy's plan to reserve the deepest cuts for the Owens clinic and the Dolan Family Health Center in Greenlawn.

Levy's plan would have allowed funding at other county health centers, run by hospitals, to be reduced by only 6 percent. Levy said the county can absorb the loss of one health center but deep cuts networkwide would leave the entire system "dysfunctional."

The plan submitted by Southside Hospital, which operates the county's Brentwood Family Health Center, calls for ending all primary health care visits starting in September and restricting services to prenatal and high-risk gynecologic care. The cuts would mean a loss of 23,000 patient visits a year and the layoff of 90 employees.

Brookhaven Memorial Hospital, which runs county health centers in Patchogue and Shirley, submitted a plan that would cut operations from 51 to 40 hours a week and reduce its staff of pediatricians from five to two and other physicians from 12 to 2. It would mean a loss of 55,000 patient visits and the layoff of 60 employees.

Good Samaritan Hospital, which runs the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health Center in Wyandanch, would cut services from 52 to 40 hours a week and lay off 20 employees. The plan did estimate the number of visits lost.

Two county-staffed centers in Riverhead and North Amityville are exempt from cuts.

Even the Owens clinic, run by Stony Brook University Medical Center, would operate only three days a week and lay off three physicians and 12 other staff. The Dolan center, county officials say, has avoided further cuts by using $375,000 of a Huntington Hospital endowment.

Health center cuts resulted from a decision by the state last year to ax $19 million in health aid dating to 2008. The county appealed to the state, and Levy aides say talks continue but they see little chance for a major aid restoration.

"I don't blame the legislature. This is the state's doing," said Levy, who is leaving a final choice to lawmakers. The state must give the county a final decision on whether the Owens center will be closed within two weeks, and Levy aides say such a shutdown could occur in late August, after notice is given to patients and unions.Legis. Kate Browning (WFP-Shirley), chairwoman of the legislature's Health Committee, said a state failure to provide more aid may force a shut down somewhere else. "If the state doesn't change, we may have to close a health center," she said.