Provided that an agreement can be reached with the town, Robert Scholefield outlined a process to the clinic’s opening, along with an anticipated timeframe.
“In order to get approval to operate, first I have to work with the New York State Health Department. I have to file what’s called a ‘certificate of need’ application for the opening of an extension clinic in the Town of Webb,” he said.
That means preparing a Patient Care Plan, a Building Plan, a Staffing Plan, and a Business Plan that the Health Department would have to approve.The approval process could take anywhere from two weeks to two months, Scholefield said.
“Then I would have to make the physical modifications to the building to bring it to the level of code that the Health Department would require to have it operated by a hospital as opposed to a private institute,” he said.
“Based on what I saw last week when I visited, that probably would take at least 30 to 60 days.”
Scholefield doesn’t expect everything to be final before Dr. Socash’s departure on July 27, but soon thereafter.
He said that if all goes well, he would hope to be in place by mid-summer, loosely defined.
Staffing support prior to that would be difficult, Scholefield said, simply because St. E’s doesn’t have the staff to offer. Physician staff would have to be cultivated expressly for the Town of Webb clinic.
And recruitment would happen within St. E’s network and also well beyond.
The goal is to attract doctors that would take residence locally and become part of the community.
All would be board certified and will have fulfilled residency requirements for family practice.
The contract being discussed with St. E’s is expected to go 15 years, Supervisor Riehle said.
