Fond memories shared of St. Clare's Hospital

The announcement that St. Clare's Hospital in Schenectady will turn over its services to Ellis Hospital has left people affiliated with the Catholic hospital with a sense of melancholy.

The two hospitals began working together as a result of the State Commission on Health Care Facilities for the 21st Century, also known as the Berger Commission.

Both hospitals originally hoped to maintain separate identities while sharing a unified governance structure, but it was decided in January that St. Clare's would close. Its campus will continue to provide medical care but as part of Ellis. All signs of St. Clare's Catholic identity will be removed.

'Loss'

"There is a sense of loss," said Rev. Richard Leskovar, a former chaplain at the facility. "It's like losing a part of my family. I spent most of my priesthood there."

He served as chaplain for 25 years, even living on the hospital campus during part of his tenure.

"For me personally, it was one of the most rewarding ministries," he said. "I was part of something important."

Ministry

He recalled that the Pastoral Care Department was available to patients 24 hours a day, seven days a week. His ministry included praying with family members while a loved one was sick, anointing the sick and baptizing sick infants born in the hospital.

While he has memories like those of patients, Father Leskovar said he will also remember the hospital for its employees.

"The staff was really a caring staff," he said. "They were very special."

Christ in hospital

What made St. Clare's special, the priest continued, was that Christ was at the center of its existence.

"The whole mission was based on charity," he said. "It gave a Christ-like atmosphere."

Ceil Mack, director of corporate communications at St. Clare's, agreed that the mission of the hospital made it different from other hospitals.

"Its mission was to welcome life, nurture life and treat people with dignity," she said.

Serving poor

One of the most significant contributions of St. Clare's, Ms. Mack said, was that it provided care to people regardless of their ability to pay.

The hospital maintained a charity care program that provided medically necessary services at a reduced rate or at no cost. The hospital provided $5.5 million in uncompensated care during 2006.

According the New York State Institutional Cost Report, St. Clare's had the highest rate of Medicaid-covered patients of any hospital in the Capital District.

Employees

The hospital's mission to respect life also applied to how the staff was treated, Ms. Mack said, who worked there for 29 years.

She said that many employees spent their whole careers at the hospital. Some worked their way through college at the hospital and utilized its tuition assistance program.

"In a time when the norm is to move from place to place, we have people who have 30 or 40 years of service," she said.

History

Ms. Mack said Catholics of Schenectady petitioned the Albany Diocese to establish a Catholic hospital during the 1940s. St. Clare's, co-sponsored by the Diocese and the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, opened in 1949.

St. Clare's has done much to advance the practice of medicine in upstate New York, Ms. Mack said. In the 1970s, for example, it established a dental residency program and a family practice residency program.

"We've trained hundreds of doctors and dentists," she said. "We repopulated upstate New York with doctors and dentists. This is a huge contribution."

Have a heart

During the 1980s, she continued, the hospital was also among the first to offer cardiac rehabilitation. With the opening of that program, the hospital also began to promote heart health among its employees and the community.

The first Cardiac Classic was held in 1981, Ms. Mack said. It is a wellness walk, a 5K run and a fun run held every Thanksgiving.

"It was started to get staff acquainted with heart health and to raise some money," Ms. Mack said. "Thousands of people participated."

(A steering committee made up of employees of St. Clare's and Ellis will make recommendations on how to proceed with the change-over by Oct. 1.)

(03/13/08) [[In-content Ad]]