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Publication: News 12 WC + Crain’s NY

Last week St. Joseph’s Medical Center in southern Westchester received grant money to renovate its surgical suites from a state program to modernize aging hospitals.

The Yonkers safety-net facility has received $19.7 million to upgrade the technology and physical infrastructure in its six operating rooms, interventional radiology room and two endoscopy suites, said CEO Michael Spicer. The grant – the largest Spicer says St. Joseph’s has ever received from the state – will allow the hospital to align its operating rooms with the current standards and improve surgical efficiencies.

St. Joseph’s, which has 194 beds, obtained the funding through the state’s health care facility transformation grant program. The initiative offers capital grants to hospitals and other medical providers seeking to upgrade aging facilities and expand access to services, and has become especially useful to financially struggling facilities that do not have the extra cash to invest in new projects.

“It’s paramount to enable us to continue caring for people,” said Spicer, who has served as the CEO of St. Joseph’s since 2000. He added that roughly 90% of the hospital’s patients are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, which reimburse hospitals less than what private insurers pay.

St. Joseph’s Medical Center, which earns just over $1 billion in annual revenue, sees roughly 6,500 surgical patients each year, Spicer said. The majority of those patients receive orthopedic, vascular, urological, gynecologic and general surgeries, he added.

The hospital is in the middle of completing an $18 million renovation of its emergency department and primary care clinic, which see 60,000 patients per year, Spicer said.

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