McDowell Memo: Why Tioga County needs a Community-based Hospital

Why Tioga County Needs A Local Hospital

                Up until the early 1980’s , Tioga county had a hospital , Tioga General in Waverly where Elderwood Nursing facility is now. The reason that this hospital was non-sustainable economically then was the proximity to Robert Packer in Sayre, Pa. only about a 5-minute drive from anywhere in Waverly . Since that time Tioga County has been one of the very few NYS Counties without a hospital.

For along part of the ensuing history, there was almost no need for a local hospital because Ideal, Wilson and Robert Packer were all growing and services especially Emergency Room services were enough for the population that the county had. Yes, they were in many cases a long drive in an emergency but manageable. First, United Health Closed Ideal and turned it in to a type of nursing home. Then when the population started to diminish in the triple cities, Wilson became a trauma center to handle the need in Broome, Tioga, Chenango counties, etc. Packer started to decrease emergency services and stopped being a trauma center, but expanded the campus for other specialties such as, cardiology etc. Wilson and Binghamton General also expanded their specialty services. Today with a much older population, we have family practice facilities in the county including Guthrie, UHS and Lourdes in several other communities, when many years they closed at 5pm and were not open on the weekend. As these older folks and growing families needed after hours service, they began overloading Wilson and Packers Emergency rooms with minor issues. So, UHS, Guthrie (Packer) and Lourdes started placing walk-in clinics in the region, but these also were not staffed properly and might be able to treat minor illnesses, but radiological, and other testing and treatments were still referred to the main campuses.

                Emergency Medical Services or ambulance paramedics were all staffed by volunteers in the county and we had very fast and excellent service. But as the populations aged and the state has forced regulations down to the local organizations that has negatively impacted staffing. In the past an ambulance would rarely not staff a call and mutual aid would be needed. Today that is an everyday occurrence with many calls taking 20-30 minutes to clear the station enroute to help the victims. Some departments had gone to paid EMT’s and Paramedics, even in some cases having to disband the original fire department-based organization to go to a separate EMS organization. Sadly, some have even disbanded all together. With less people to staff the ambulances and more people in need of emergency treatment the Emergency room wait times to be treated have exploded. I know in my family it has been several times that they spent over 24 hours to be examined, tested and treated.



                This is the background to what I propose, that being the building of a 24-hour 7 days a week hospital in central Tioga County. Such a facility with an Emergency Room, operating suite, MRI and Cat Scan abilities, with approximately 50 beds in wards would fix the need and keep our citizens close to home and family. It would also make the time it takes to get an emergency room in almost half, relieve the overcrowding at UHS and Packer and allow people to not have to travel an hour to get more advanced testing then at a walk-clinic. With the start of the Nursing School at Binghamton University and proposed Rx school there, it would make it easier to retain professionals to Tioga County. Of course, this would not be a trauma center or advanced care hospital but a community hospital. In many places around the country community-based hospitals are starting to grow again as we face another 20+ years of the baby boomers growing through their elderly years. Why should we not take this opportunity to deliver faster better care to our citizens.

                Now we know that it would be much harder to do this without one of the 3 hospital and medical organizations that dominate our health delivery in our county. But I am sure that one of these with the proper enticement would be glad to get a foothold over the competitor in Tioga County. Federal and State funds would be needed and a commitment from Local and County governments. But what if we had an emergency room that was quick to and out of. Minor surgeries able to be down within a half hour of your house, including in patient and out patient surgeries. Testing that you don’t have to go an hour to have. A place where you could visit friends and family conveniently.

                Finally, this idea would generate approximately 150 full-time well-paying jobs, including numerous professionals. This doesn’t even speak to the construction jobs created by the building process. The ripple effect of this increase would affect housing, rentals, retail and dining establishments.

                One key to this being successful is that the location must be centrally located to all towns in the county and the interstate, 30 minutes should be the maximum drive time to the hospital.

                My hope is that this will generate some discussions and that people will be comment with their ideas both for and against. If we discuss this and get our doctors , government and businesses to think about the potential we will in some way improve the health delivery systems for our Tioga County friends and family.

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