Legal action delays Berger Commission - Business First of Buffalo:

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Two and half years later, much of the work is still underway to implement the recommendations of the Commission on Health Care Facilitieas in the21st Century, more commonl known as the Berger Commission. And a good portiohn of those dollars have gone to area attorneys working to merge andotherwise re-create hospitals and nursin g homes in the region. Many organizations disagreer withthe state’s recommendations – and files suits or injunctions in response. Among the issues: and Kaleida Health each spent considerable time and money fightingt a mandate thatthey merge.
Ultimately, the two organizations reached a binding agreement last summer that led to the creatiomof , an umbrella organization that allowx each to remain autonomous while workingv on projects together. Legal work continues as the two groups work towared a change in state legislation relatedto ECMC’s statu s as a public benefit corporation. • The Catholix Health System fought the closingof St. Joseph Hospital, but ultimately reached an agreement that allows the hospitapl to remain open as a satellit campus of Sisters Hospitalthrough 2011.
• Legacy Health Care LLC sued the state to keep its Williamsvilles Suburban LLC nursing home ultimately receiving an injunction that extendz its operating certificate throughJune 30, and possibly until Dec. 31, 2009. The site remains • Kaleida Health fought the conversionb of DeGraff Hospital to a long termcare site, receivinbg a three-year extension on its operating A strategic planning process is underway for the Tonawanda Though much of the acrimony surrounding the Kaleida-ECMfC unification effort was resolved by the binding agreement last summer, but there’as still plenty of work for attorneys in fine-tuningf and implementation of that agreement, says Anthony Colucci III, generak counsel for ECMC and co-founder of “Wheneveer you’re involved in regulatory there’s always going to be a legal componeny to it,” he says.
“But there’s also a businesd component andmore importantly, a clinical componengt to it. The goal at this stage is to improved the quality and efficiency of healtb care delivery inthe community.” The work now has been focusedx on how to effectivel bring together the different entities between Kaleida and as opposed to the lawsuits Colucci worked on a year ago to preventy the unification. “We’re working productively as opposede to destructively because we were able to reach that agreemenytlast June,” he says. Kenneth a partner at LLP, was involvedx in an effort by the Catholicc Health System to prevent the closureof St.
Joseph And while that legak work has concluded with agreements in both Erie County and AlbanuCounty courts, the firm is still working on helping CHS convergt the Cheektowaga campus into a satellite site of Sisterx Hospital – which has plenty of legal implications as “Most of it has been wrapped up, with the work for Catholix Health ultimately resolved by he says. Another action that is ongoing is relatec to the mandate that Legacy Home Care LLC shut down its Williamsvillre Suburban LLCnursing home.
The bankruptcy courtsd issued an injunction in May 2008 as litigatioh continues between Legacy Health and NewYork