Lakeside OB to close; new partnership formed for services with Rochester Gynecologic & Obstetric Associates
by Kristina Gabalski
Following the news April 10 that Lakeside Hospital in Brockport is closing its birthing center, officials announced that Lakeside is welcoming Rochester Gynecologic & Obstetric Associates (RGOA) to offices at Lakeside Hospital.
Lakeside officials say that although there has been a decline in the number of deliveries at the hospital over the past 10 years, demand for gynecology services has remained steady.
The ten-physician RGOA group will offer expanded general gynecology and urogynecology care and plans to perform laparoscopic and other minimally invasive surgeries at Lakeside Hospital.
Lakeside Interim CEO Hugh H. Collins calls the decision to close the birthing unit a “painful one,” but he says that the partnership with RGOA will mean an expansion of services for Lakeside patients. “This decision to eliminate our birthing unit and partner with RGOA allows us to concentrate resources and improve access to services most in demand in our community,” he says.
“(RGOA) is a larger, high-quality, board-certified group. We will be growing and expanding services right here at home,” Collins said. “We are thrilled to welcome an outstanding physician practice with a reputation for excellent, patient-centered care.”
Physicians in the practice will provide prenatal and post-natal care for expectant mothers, although deliveries will be done at the University of Rochester Medical Center (Strong Memorial Hospital) instead of Lakeside.
In addition to ten physicians, the RGOA group includes two licensed and certified nurse practitioners. Mitchell A. Linder, M.D. will be joining the group in August and will be providing care to Lakeside patients. RGOA will provide a full range of obstetrical services and gynecologic services including robot-assisted surgery (Da Vinci at Strong).
Collins calls the Da Vinci robot, “state of the art. I’ve seen it and implemented it at two other hospitals.”
RGOA physicians say they are committed to excellence in health care for women. “We are pleased to have this opportunity to provide care for women in the Brockport area on the Lakeside campus and help that community maintain the strong, on-site medical services they need,” said Stephan Sanko, M.D., of RGOA. “We welcome this exciting opportunity to provide continuous obstetrical and gynecology care for the patients of Lakeside Health System.”
The practice expects to begin providing services at Lakeside in the next 90 days or less. The new RGOA office will be the practice’s second location on the west side of Rochester. Brockport patients can also be seen at the 1850 Buffalo Road location in Gates or other RGOA locations.
Collins says the existing birthing unit staff will be interviewed by RGOA and if Lakeside has critical vacancies somewhere else that staff has the skill sets for, the hospital may be able to accommodate them but, “some will be displaced.”
“We are actually on a journey here,” Collins explains, “to become a low-cost – high-quality service provider.”
He said that journey would mean more changes and other initiatives for Lakeside in order to accomplish a financial turn-around for the health system.
Some of those initiatives are “going to be painful for us,” he says. “But when we get to the end of the journey we will have an organization that is a financially viable, financially healthy, low-cost provider of great services.”
Officials say Lakeside has submitted a closure plan for the birthing unit to the NYS Department of Health. Approval is expected in about 90 days. In 2010, the hospital recorded over 220 births.
Patients of the current Ob/Gyn practice at Lakeside will receive complete information about the changes in a letter mailed to their homes “which will detail a complete list of services we are bringing here to Lakeside,” Collins said.
