NEWBURGH – Once federal regulators approve it, St. Luke’s
Cornwall Hospital in Eastern Orange County will become part of the Montefiore
Health System, headquartered in the Bronx.
The system includes Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a total of
10 hospitals.
SLCH will retain its identity and the majority of board members, but it
will have a new parent organization in what officials call a strategic
partnership.
The bottom line to the partnership is Montefiore’s doctors and specialties
will be available to residents of the Mid-Hudson Valley. “Our neighbors
will continue to receive the same great care from the same dedicated doctors,
nurses and staff, only with greater access to specialty care, expanding
our ability to do more for them,” said Interim SLCH President Joan
Cusack-McGuirk.
Montefiore’s President, Dr. Steven Safyer told an announcement gathering
at SLCH’s Newburgh campus on Monday that both hospitals have the
same goals.
“We have a commonality in terms of how we conceive of healthcare
and we have a community here, albeit with a lot of diversity and a lot
of different components making it up, but there is a lot of challenge
of challenge here too, and there is a lot of need and we believe together
we can fulfill the missions that are commanding us to come together and
we can do them better, I think, than separately and alone,” he said.
Cusack-McGuirk said in addition to improving healthcare to the region,
the partnership will help St. Luke’s Cornwall to reduce its deficit.
