WESTERLO — A group of citizens is fighting to keep the Perkins Clinic in Westerlo open.

The number of patients at the Main Street clinic, run by St. Peter’s Hospital, has dropped drastically in recent years and is losing money, a hospital spokesman told The Enterprise last month.

A questionnaire was recently sent to area residents from St. Peter’s Hospital to gauge the community’s use of the facility. After the questionnaire was sent out, a score of concerned residents formed to keep the facility open.

Dr. Anna Perkins, who served the Hilltowns for decades, died in 1993, leaving her medical office to continue serving the community.

Some area residents question where elderly residents will go to receive medical attention and whether they will continue to seek attention if the facility is closed.
Cathy Rudzinski, the Friends of the Perkins Clinic’s spokesperson, questioned the validity of the survey’s results. She said only a small number of people received the questionnaire, that the survey didn’t ask "a whole lot of questions," and that people received the questionnaire in locations where the future of the facility is not of as much concern.
"The majority should have hit Westerlo," Rudzinski said. "It could have been done better."

Rudzinski said she would like a chance to see the facility stay open, but, even if it can no longer remain in the same building, another location could be found. Rudzinski said a fund-raiser could be held.

While the facility is run by St. Peter’s, the building is owned by the not-for-profit Helderberg Medical Building Association, Inc, the corporation Perkins signed the property over to in 1986. The town’s supervisor, Richard Rapp, is a member of the corporation’s board of directors, which is primarily comprised of local residents. St. Peter’s has been in charge of the facility since 1994.

In the deed, Perkins stipulated that she be permitted during her life to use her office, the two adjoining rooms, and a one-car garage on the property. Nothing on the deed restricts the use or sale of the property by the corporation.
"That seems to be the problem," Rudzinski said of the facility being run by St. Peter’s and the building being owned by a corporation. "If the two of them don’t work together, we’re going to have problems, I think."
At Westerlo’s town board meeting this month, concerned citizens packed Town Hall. "As soon as the meeting was over, people signed up to see if they could help," said Rudzinski.
After the questionnaire, she said, the facility started to close on Thursdays "instead of extending the hours later into the night and earlier in the morning."
St. Peter’s leaders maintain the facility is losing $160,000 each year, Rudzinski claimed, adding that the figure "may be on the clinic proper."

Elmer Streeter, spokesman for St. Peter’s Hospital, said one month ago that, in 2005, the Anna Perkins center had 4,401 active patients, and, 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. Streeter did not return calls to The Enterprise this week.

Peg Duncan, a member of the citizens’ group, attributed the declining number of patients to the facility’s cutting its hours.
Recently, Rudzinski said, she has had tests performed at the clinic that "have run up in the thousands [of dollars]." With the facility no longer running, she said, St. Peter’s would no longer be receiving that money.
Duncan said elderly residents won’t go "off the Hill" for their medical needs.

"A real vicious cycle"

The citizens’ group held its third meeting on Monday night at the Westerlo Rescue Squad building in the hamlet.

The group has scheduled another meeting for Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at the same location. Shortly after the group meets, they will move to Town Hall, where the town board will be holding its regular meeting, said Rudzinski.

A public meeting with the town board and representatives of St. Peter’s is also scheduled for Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at Town Hall.
Rudzinski lauded the staff of the Perkins center. "I think they run it very professionally," she said. The facility employs a practical nurse, a receptionist, and a physician, Dr. Edwin Windle.
"Without them, where would the older people go"" Rudzinski asked. Her mother, she said, is bed-ridden, and Dr. Windle makes visits to her house.
"To get her to a doctor," Rudzinski said, "we would have to call an ambulance."
She said that, if the center closed, it would result in "a real vicious cycle." Ambulance costs would be "astronomical," and Westerlo, which she called "a depressed area," would see higher taxes.
Leonard Laub, Westerlo’s planning board chairman, and his wife are patients of the clinic. Laub, a member of the citizens’ group, said he is involved "not as a planning board person," but as a citizen and patient. Laub called the Perkins Center "very much a fixture of the community."
Windle, who practices internal medicine and pediatrics at the facility and has been employed there since 1996, has "quite a following from high school sports teams," said Laub. The clinic still has an employee, Laub said, who worked under Perkins.

Laub said patients come to the center because they know its staff.

Westerlo town council members and members of the citizens’ group have sent letters to Steven Boyle, the president of St. Peter’s Hospital’s and its chief executive officer.
In his letter to Boyle, Councilman R. Gregory Zeh cites "two key components" from St. Peter’s mission: "We advocate for accessible health care and quality of life for all, especially the poor," and "We respond with courage and integrity to needs for services in a rapidly changing health care environment."

Both, Zeh wrote, support the continuation of health-care services at the Anna Perkins Center.