Dropping
Number of patients at W’lo’s Perkins center



WESTERLO — As health-care facilities are slated to close, merge, and downsize throughout the state, a questionnaire was recently sent to area residents to gauge the community’s use of a local clinic.

The number of adult and pediatric patients at the Anna W. Perkins Helderberg Health Center, a St. Peter’s Hospital primary-care clinic on Main Street in Westerlo, has dropped drastically in recent years and the facility is losing money, according to Elmer Streeter, spokesman for St. Peter’s Hospital.

In 2005, the Anna Perkins Center had 4,401 active patients, said Streeter. One year later, the number declined to 3,456. This year, based on the 3,000 visits so far, Streeter estimated the facility now has just 800 to 1,000 active patients.

No decision has been made about the Westerlo center, Streeter said, adding that, if the hospital keeps offices open, it wants to ensure that they are being used.

The facility employs a practical nurse, a receptionist, and a physician, Dr. Edwin Windle.

St. Peter’s Hospital has been in charge of the facility since 1994, according to Streeter.

Windle has worked at the center since 1996.

His patients include mostly residents from the surrounding area — Westerlo, Berne, and Greenville. A handful of others who have moved away, such as to Albany, Watervliet, Troy, and Cairo, return to the Hilltown clinic for services, according to Windle.
"No one’s ever said the clinic’s closing," said Windle. He is not sure where his patients would go if the facility closed because he is uncertain which area doctors are still accepting patients.
Asked why the number of patients at the facility has declined in recent years, Windle said, "I don’t really know."

He thinks one of the goals of the survey is to find out why the numbers of patients were declining.

Dr. Anna Perkins, for whom the facility is named, died in 1993. Throughout her career, Perkins visited local homes, charging patients small amounts of money for her services.

The hospital’s recent questionnaire was sent to residents in Berne, East Berne, and Westerlo; some locals did not receive the survey, according to Streeter.

St. Peter’s bought lists from the list vendor it usually uses; some residents’ names were not included on the list, said Streeter, adding that it was not the hospital’s intent to exclude anyone, and St. Peter’s wants as many responses as possible.

St. Peter’s Hospital also has offices in Slingerlands, Rensselaer, and on South Pearl Street in Albany. It also has facilities in Albany and the surrounding area — nursing homes, addiction centers, hospice-care clinics, and a student health center at Siena College in Loudonville.