SUFFERN – Good Samaritan Hospital, one of two community hospitals in Rockland County, is now fully owned and operated by Westchester Medical Center Health Network.
The hospital has been affiliated with WMC Health since 2015, when Good Sam’s parent organization, Bon Secours Charity Health System, or RSCHS, merged with the Valhalla-based healthcare provider, also known as WMCHealth.
Other BSCHS hospitals — Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis and St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick — are also now fully part of WMCHealth.
WMCHealth officials said during the Sept. 18 announcement that there would be no changes to operations or access to care at Good Sam and the other facilities.
Any branding changes — including names changes at the local hospitals — were not specified.
WMCHealth officials called the takeover a “natural extension” of WMCHealth’s mission.
‘Stronger, more sustainable network’
Millions of residents throughout the Hudson Valley are served by the WMCHealth system, which includes nine hospitals and 60 ambulatory care sites.
Westchester Medical Center and Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital are the region’s only Level I adult and pediatric trauma centers and are home to the only academic medical center between New York City and Albany.
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“Patients are at the center of everything we do. With this new chapter we are strengthening our promise to create a healthier Hudson Valley where every family can rely on advanced care that is rooted in their community,” WMCHealth CEO and President Dr. David Lubarsky said in a statement. “By fully integrating these hospitals, we are creating a stronger, more sustainable network that will serve generations to come.”
Steps toward WMCHealth, Bon Secours consolidation
The move comes after consolidations of services — and layoffs — over the last couple years.
In May 2024, Good Sam and other small hospitals in the Bon Secours chain were hit with layoffs. The hospital workers’ union, SEIU 1199, at the time said the move was to beef up business at the WMCHealth main campus in Valhalla.
Another round of layoffs hit in November 2024. In that round, about 129 jobs, or 1% of WMCHealth’s workforce, lost their jobs.
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The network employs around 13,000 people throughout the Hudson Valley.
Good Sam’s history, ties to Sisters of Charity
Good Samaritan Hospital opened in 1902 to serve the growing village of Suffern. It had just seven beds. It was first in a donated mansion off Orange Avenue in the village.
The Sisters of Charity, an order with a mission that includes ministering to the sick, became involved in its operations.
In 1938, the hospital opened at its current site on Lafayette Avenue, or Route 59.
The hospital then became Rockland County’s first AMA-accredited hospital.
The hospital grew, as the county did, with the opening of the Palisades Interstate Parkway and Tappan Zee Bridge in the post-war 1950s era.
It underwent a significant expansion in 1970. Later, services like substance-use treatment, cardiac catherization lab and a full Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU, were added.
In 2000, the Bon Secours Health Network, with Good Sam as a key part, was formed.
The healthcare campus was visited many times by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York
In 2007, its Active International Cardiovascular Institute opened.
With Bon Secours Health Network no longer part of the facility, Catholic entities will not be part of Good Sam’s operations.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: WMCHealth completes takeover of Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. What’s next
Reporting by Nancy Cutler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
