Waterbury ExpressCare clinic to remain closed due to pandemic response

July 13, 2020  |  By Indigo Glaza  |  Community News Service

Central Vermont Medical Center will not reopenWaterbury ExpressCare. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti.

Central Vermont Medical Center announced Monday that it will not reopen the Waterbury ExpressCare clinic that has been closed since April 27.

Hospital president and chief operating officer Anna Tempesta Noonan in a memo to hospital staff said the move was made as part of the hospital’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

“Our Waterbury Family Medicine practice and other outpatient practices, as well as Berlin ExpressCare stand ready to meet care needs of this community,” she wrote. 

She added that none of the staff at the clinic will lose their jobs. “We do not anticipate staff reductions due to the decision not to reopen, as the Waterbury ExpressCare staff have been reallocated to directly support our COVID-19 work,” Noonan wrote. 

Hospital Vice President of Practice Operations Marc Gagnon said the move was made by a group within the organization. “It was a decision that was not made lightly. It was based on conversations with leadership at the hospital and leadership of our ExpressCare locations, as well as leadership at our Waterbury practices,” he said.  

Central Vermont Medical Center is one of six hospitals in the University of Vermont Health Network. On May 1, network President and Chief Executive John Brumsted announced  “sweeping measures to address staggering revenue losses directly related to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic” throughout the system. 

Hospital officials estimate losses for the fiscal year will exceed $152 million and they have taken steps to cut costs including cutting salaries, bonuses and retirement benefits for network managers and doctors, instituting a hiring freeze across the network, and freezing capital spending. 

Factors contributing to the financial storm include new measures to deal with COVID-19 patients, cancellation of all non-urgent appointments and procedures this spring, new tele-health operations, and a suspension of collection on outstanding bills, hospital officials outlined recently. 

Yet while the system is facing an unprecedented crunch, Central Vermont Medical Center spokesman Elliott Bent said in a statement that delivering medical care during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was the major consideration in closing the Waterbury facility.  

“The major drivers behind the decision to not reopen the ExpressCare were: continued staffing needs for our COVID-19 response initiatives and our determination that between our Waterbury family practice, the Berlin ExpressCare, and new options for video visits, Waterbury area residents have very good access to care,” Bent said. “Finances are always a consideration when making big decisions like opening or consolidating practices, but they’re rarely the sole decision-point.”

Gagnon said that consolidating the ExpressCare staff in Berlin was done very much with longer-term COVID-19 health care services in mind. “Honestly, we are worried about a second wave happening of this pandemic coming this fall and so we shifted that staff to our Berlin ExpressCare location, and we started some new services,” he said.

New services in Berlin include an acute respiratory clinic, a call center related to the virus, and a COVID-19 testing site. Those new functions have created positions that allowed for   reassigning staff from the MedExpress in Waterbury, Gagnon said. Hospital outpatient practices also have added online health visits which include video appointments for patients. 

Gagnon explained that the new setup and services should have the system well-prepared to handle caring for patients during this pandemic. “We use data based on visit volume and where people are coming [from], and then where we can accommodate that volume,” he said. “This is reallocating our staff where it is most needed to better accommodate the needs of our patients so we can provide high quality care to our Waterbury and existing communities.”

Waterbury ExpressCare is located along Route 100 in Waterbury Center. Hospital spokesman Bent said the offices will remain there but closed for now. “We have no plans to physically move out of the space at this time,” he said. 

Community News Service is a collaboration with the University of Vermont’s Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program.