• A Message from Jim O'Connor
• Testimony to the
  Rightsizing Committee
• Berger Commission News
• Senator LaValle
  Supports St. Charles
• Doctor calls Berger Commission's
  recommendations 'dangerous'
• Port Jefferson Resolution
• Senate Confirms Daines
  as NY's Helath Commissioner
• The Maryhaven Letter
• Email Talking Points
• Your St. Charles Story

 

Template Letter

Uncomfortable writing a letter? Let us do the work for you.

Simply copy the text below and paste it into an email to Senator Hannon, Senator Lavalle, Senator Flanagan, Assemblyman Gottfried and Assemblyman Englebright to let them know why you count on St. Charles.

 

Dear Legislator:

I am writing to you to ask your support in addressing the Commission on Health Care in the 21st Century’s recommendations regarding St. Charles Hospital.

As the report itself stated, St. Charles has fiscally stabilized, reduced expenses and has operated at essentially break even for more than a year. Given this turnaround it is hard to understand why the Commission would recommend eliminating the Emergency Department (ED) at St. Charles and force it to close 77 revenue-producing medical/surgical beds.

In the Mather-St. Charles Health Alliance, St. Charles is the sole provider of obstetrical (OB) services, with more than 2,400 babies delivered at the hospital each year. Without an Emergency Department or medical/surgical beds, including ICU and critical care beds, the safe delivery of obstetrical services would be greatly compromised.

There is no other hospital in the region that offers the scope and quality of orthopedic surgery that St. Charles does. The Hospital performs the most total joint replacement surgeries in Suffolk County, with more than 700 in 2006. Eliminating 77 medical/surgical beds would in effect eliminate the orthopedic program and patient access to this much needed service.

Each year, 25,000 patients are treated in St. Charles’s Emergency Department. This volume of patients cannot be absorbed by other hospitals in the area. There will be longer wait times for patients with emergent conditions, thus raising patient safety issues.

For more than 100 years, St. Charles Hospital has remained true to its founding mission of providing care to all in need. The Hospital continues to function as the leading center for rehabilitation for both children and adults with special needs and severe injuries. In addition, St. Charles operates a Specialty Clinic that provides services to children with specific diagnoses, including Spina Bifida, Muscular Dystrophy and Cerebral Palsy, a Dental Clinic that serves the developmentally disabled population and a Pediatric Primary Care Clinic for the underinsured. Without profitable service lines to maintain the hospital’s financial viability, St. Charles would no longer be able to fund these services.

I am asking for your support in this matter and to address it as quickly as possible. As thousands count on St. Charles for their health care needs, I am counting on you to do the right thing.

Sincerely,

 

St. Charles Hospital · 200 Belle Terre Road · Port Jefferson · NY 11777