Democrat and Chronicle

Genesee Hospital’s abrupt closure left Rochester stunned

The Genesee Hospital was establishe­d through the efforts of a prominent Rochesteri­an to serve residents in the southeaste­rn part of the city. It was said to be the first locally to use X-rays and first to have its own ambulance, albeit a horse-drawn version. When it abruptly closed in 2001, a media firestorm ensued.

Rochester Homeopathi­c Hospital

During the winter of 1887, Margaret Harper Sibley, wife of Western Union Telegraph Co. co-founder Hiram Sibley, saw a woman fall on an icy sidewalk in front of her East Avenue home.

Mrs. Sibley had her coachman take the injured woman to the nearest hospital, City Hospital on West Main Street, quite a distance away. That was when Mrs. Sibley decided to get an east-side hospital going. (This Sibley family, incidental­ly, was not affiliated with Sibley’s department store.)

Rochester Homeopathi­c Hospital and its School of Nursing opened in 1889 at 233 Monroe Ave.

Growth over the decades

Within five years, the hospital had outgrown its space and a new hospital was opened at 224 Alexander St. with significan­t donations from the Sibleys and others.

A horse-and-buggy ambulance was donated in 1895 and the city’s first use of X-rays came a year later.

Genesee Hospital, as it was named starting in 1926, later added buildings, wings and dedicated services such as the Genesee Health Service, the Pluta Radiation Oncology Center, the Hopeman Orthopedic Unit, the Mary Parkes Asthma Center and the Birthing Center.

Times of trouble and closure

Then in the 1990s, “managed care” became the mantra, and cost-cuttings became the norm. By the end of 1994, Genesee and Rochester General hospitals affiliated as the Greater Rochester Health system (later known as ViaHealth). Other local hospitals also paired up.

And then in March 2001 the ViaHealth board voted to close Genesee, citing millions of dollars in losses.

“For years, Genesee was Rochester’s most profitable hospital, rich in doctors, patients and benefactor­s,” Susan J. Smith wrote in May 2001 in the Democrat and Chronicle. “From 1982 through 1993, Genesee made money every year and turned a net profit of $45 million — almost double the profit margin of Strong Memorial Hospital. Today, Genesee is all but dead. … How did Genesee go from such success to total failure in only seven years?”

Smith and others cited factors including huge drops in occupancy rates, years of bad billing practices, bitter competitio­n with Strong, the Rochester General affiliatio­n and a mid-1990s request by Eastman Kodak Co. that the local health care community significan­tly reduce insurance premiums, unleashing competitio­n among hospitals.

Genesee Hospital — which had about 2,200 full- and part-time employees at the end — closed for good, though creditor issues went on for years. Some services switched to other hospitals.

The hospital campus was eventually demolished and redevelope­d as a retail/residentia­l/office complex.