TROY — Samaritan Hospital’s fundraising board is joining the chorus of opposition to the proposed closure of Burdett Birth Center.
A resolution approved Thursday by members of Samaritan Hospital and the Eddy Foundation — the entity previously known as the Northeast Health Foundation — marks the first public criticism of the plan to eliminate Troy’s only maternity ward by a St. Peter’s Health Partners-affiliated organization.
Board member Jim Conroy, a real estate professional and former deputy mayor of Troy, said he hopes taking this position will prompt St. Peter’s and its corporate parent, the Michigan-based Trinity Health, to reverse course.
“One of the things that is frustrating about this particular decision is that we read about it essentially in the newspapers,” Conroy said. “I felt that the management, in not commenting on it to us, ignored the possibility that we may have been able to generate some of the money necessary to keep the birthing center open. We were not given an opportunity to even contribute to discussion, much less contribute to a solution.”
Dr. Robert Benton, a St. Peter’s-affiliated cardiologist and chairman of the philanthropy board, said some board members have personal attachments to the birth center, while others want the sentiment in the community to be reflected by the foundation. Several members abstained from voting on the resolution.
“Some of this is about process, making sure people feel included when you do something big,” Benton said.
Conroy said the foundation is one of the top fundraising bodies in the national health care network that includes 88 hospitals across 26 states. The board’s efforts produced $25 million for Samaritan’s state-of-the-art Heinrich Medicus Pavilion, which opened in 2018.
“The quotes by our management that they need to maintain a 3 percent margin is frankly offensive and I don’t think it reflects the attitude that a Catholic hospital should have when meeting the needs of a community,” Conroy said.
A spokesperson from St. Peter’s Health Partners noted that the proposed closure has the full support of the St. Peter’s Health Partners board of directors, which is the governing board for the entire system.
“While the Samaritan Hospital & Eddy Foundation Board is not a governing board, it is a very important fundraising board with deep community ties and a passion for supporting our hospital,” hospital spokesman Robert Webster said. “We hear, acknowledge and understand the concerns that they have raised, which echo many that we have heard to date.”
Like the philanthropy board, members of the St. Peter’s administration are passionate supporters of Troy and are committed to meeting the community’s needs, he added. He noted that Samaritan will continue to provide pre- and post-natal care in Troy.
“We continue to conduct outreach to explain the reasoning behind this decision which continues with community stakeholders, like the foundation board, other involved parties, and within our own organization,” Webster said.
The announcement this summer that Burdett would close by the end of the year drew criticism from local policymakers, physicians, community groups and patients.
The Albany Roman Catholic Diocese, which has some oversight authority for local institutions with a Catholic designation, also weighed in.
Opponents of the closure plan contend St. Peter’s is reneging on its commitments to preserve reproductive health services in Troy.
The Save Burdett Birth Center coalition’s efforts to keep the center open have attracted the interest of state Attorney General Letitia James, who held a hearing on the issue last month, noting that “promises” were made by the nonprofit health system to maintain certain reproductive health services in Troy.
Rensselaer County was once home to three birthing wards, but due to a series of hospital mergers and consolidations, Burdett is the only hospital maternity unit left.
The birth center was formed in 2011 during a merger between Samaritan Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and the Albany-based St. Peter’s Health Partners. At the time, it was agreed that the center would operate as a separate nonprofit in order to preserve certain contraception services that are prohibited under ethical and religious directives that apply to Catholic health care facilities.
St. Peter’s leaders say the center was losing money from the start. Due to declining birthrates, an “unfavorable payor mix,” and the high cost of liability insurance, Burdett is losing $2.3 million annually, hospital officials have said.
The attorney general’s Charities Bureau was involved in the dissolution of the Burdett nonprofit in 2019 — an action that moved maternity services under St. Peter’s management — which hospital officials at the time claimed was necessary to preserve maternity services in Troy.
St. Peter’s officials dispute the suggestion that state officials were misled.
“Samaritan Hospital’s willingness and desire to come to the aid of maternity services in Troy in 2019, despite projected financial losses from the services, cannot be construed as a promise to maintain services indefinitely into the future,” St. Peter’s CEO Steve Hanks said in written testimony to the attorney general’s office last month. “Samaritan Hospital, in fact, made no such promise.”
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