Who we are and what we're about

Health Care STAT is an Ulster County, NY community-based organization of health care consumers, professionals and advocates who are working to protect the delivery of critical health care services during the state-mandated joining of The Kingston Hospital (secular) and Benedictine Hospital (Catholic).

Health Care STAT's mission is to ensure that The Kingston Hospital retains its historic identity and mission as a secular hospital, unrestricted by Catholic doctrine and that it continues to provide the full range of reproductive health services and end-of-life choices.

We stand together with other advocacy groups such as MergerWatch, NY Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Rights Project, Planned Parenthood of the Mid-Hudson Valley and Family Planning Advocates of New York, and have received statements of support from elected officials, Ulster County Democratic Women, the Democratic Committee of Saugerties, the Shandaken Democratic Club and The Town of Woodstock.

Members of Health Care STAT have been championing patients' rights and access to reproductive health care for many years. In 1997, when the first merger between Kingston and Benedictine hospitals was proposed, many of them joined together as PMS (PRESERVE MEDICAL SECULARITY). At that time, the fatal flaw in the process was that opponents -- and by extension, the public -- were relegated to being mere spectators.
In the current case, there are encouraging signs that the capable, dedicated health care providers who are structuring this mandated hospital alignment have learned this lesson from their predecessors' experience.

Members of Health Care STAT and several other organizations had our first face-to-face meeting with officials of The Kingston Hospital on April 6th, 2007, and were pleased that the planning process was finally being opened up for consumer input. We heard some encouraging promises about plans to further engage the wider public in Ulster County, and that the delivery of all aspects of reproductive health care will be continued.

• The community must be included in the process of deciding how the two hospitals will be joined, and in choosing which services will be consolidated and housed in each hospital.
  There must be a seat for Health Care STAT on the hospitals' realignment planning committee, for the duration of the process.
  
  
• The Master Alignment document to be signed in Spring 2007, and the New York State Health Department's Certificate of Need process, must explicitly state the following:
  
  
  1. The final agreement must uphold The Kingston Hospital's secular mission and identity, including a statement that The Kingston Hospital has a special responsibility to provide services and patient choices that are prohibited at Benedictine.
  
  
  2. The full range of reproductive health services currently offered at The Kingston Hospital and its affiliates, or potentially offered in the future, must be protected from any religious restrictions. These include contraceptive services and counseling, safer sex counseling for HIV/AIDS and STDS (sexually transmitted diseases), genetic counseling, fertility options and referrals, tubal ligations, vasectomies, abortions, and stem cell applications (which are not limited to reproductive health, but have potential applications in many fields of medicine).
  
  
  3. A full array of reproductive surgical procedures (vasectomies, scheduled tubal ligations and abortions) must be delivered at a site located on The Kingston Hospital's campus.
  
  
  4. Maternity services should remain at both hospitals, or, if consolidated, must be located at the Kingston Hospital.
  
  
  5. Post-partum tubal ligations must continue to be done within The Kingston Hospital as part of the Labor & Delivery process, as was promised to us on April 6th.
  
  
  6. Patients who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered or Queer must be treated with respect at Benedictine Hospital and enjoy all the privileges of other patients, such as visits from loved ones, despite the Catholic Church's vehement opposition to civil rights for this segment of the community.
  
  
  7. Physician autonomy and patients' right to informed consent must be protected at Benedictine Hospital by assurances that physicians will be able to discuss all potential treatment options with patients, including those prohibited at Benedictine, and will be able to refer patients to alternative providers such as The Kingston Hospital.
  
  
  8. Patients' end-of-life choices, health care proxies and advance directives must be honored at both Kingston and Benedictine hospitals.