By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Kaleida Health has confirmed a consultant is recommending a move of Children's Hospital to either Millard Fillmore Gates Circle or Buffalo General Hospital.
At a news conference this morning, Kaleida board chairman Gerald Lippes said that the health care provider needs to consolidate its operations in order to help reduce financial losses.
Lippes said the board has not made a final decision on the recommendations from the Hunter Group, one of the nation's leading health care consultants. He said he would have preferred if the board had been able to make a decision before today's announcement was made. But word of the controversial recommendations surfaced in the media late last week.
Lippes said such crucial questions as how the move will be financed have yet to be answered. He said the timetable for completing it would be in the three to four year range.
Many physicians at Children's Hospital are strongly opposed to closing the Bryant Street facility. They say the hospital will lose its pediatric specialists if the move goes forward.
Newly announced president and CEO William McGuire was also introduced to the community this morning. He succeeds John Friedlander, who resigned last year. McGuire headed up the Catholic Medical Centers of Brooklyn and Queens from 1996 to 2000.
"Kaleida Health and the entire health-care delivery system in Western New York are at a crossroads," Lippes said. "In Bill McGuire we have selected a proven leader, with the experience, managerial success, and vision necessary to guide our hospital system as it undertakes a bold new plan for financial health and world-medical excellence."