Adirondack Health Dental Care (Enterprise photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — Though a proposed closure plan for Adirondack Health Dental Care — Adirondack Health’s dental facility in Lake Placid — is still under review by the state Department of Health, the facility’s five staff members are preparing to have their last day of operations this Friday, April 28.

On Feb. 1, Adirondack Health submitted a closure plan to the state Department of Health for its dental care facility on Old Barn Road, which has around 2,000 active patients, citing staffing challenges and financial “stressors.” Matt Scollin, the director of communications for Adirondack Health, said the state DOH notified Adirondack Health in mid-March that the proposed closure plan was “under review.” On Tuesday, Scollin said Adirondack Health expected to hear from the state DOH “any day now concerning next steps and logistics.” The plan was still under review as of press time Wednesday, according to state DOH Public Information Officer Monica Pomeroy.

Though the dental care facility can’t technically implement its proposed closure plan without written notification from the state DOH that the closure plan has been approved, a staff member at the facility — who spoke to the Enterprise on Wednesday on conditions of anonymity for fear of retribution as they search for new work — noted that the hospital has been “pushing hard” to close the facility by Monday, May 1. Since the dental care facility is not open on Mondays, the staff member said dental facility workers are informing patients that this Friday, April 28, will be the clinic’s last day of operations.

The hospital has yet to confirm whether or not the facility will close its doors for good after Friday if the state DOH doesn’t make a determination on the proposed closure plan this week. When asked on Wednesday whether or not the facility is expected to have its last day of operations on Friday, Scollin said “the status of the dental clinic after May 1 is dependent upon the response we receive from the Department of Health.” After asking if this meant that the dental facility would remain open until the state DOH makes its determination on the proposed closure plan, the Enterprise received Scollin’s automatic out-of-office response saying he would not return to the office until Friday.

Brittany Proulx and Steve Bradley — Adirondack Health’s communications manager and marketing manager, respectively, who were listed as second-in-line contacts for hospital communications in Scollin’s automated response — both declined to comment on the status of the dental care facility, citing their lack of involvement in the project.

Details about the proposed closures of the dental facility and Adirondack Health’s emergency room at the Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center on Old Military Road — which is also awaiting a determination from the state DOH’s review of a proposed closure plan, submitted this past October — have been largely shielded from the public. Though Adirondack Health sent a letter to dental care patients in March alerting them of the facility’s possible closure on May 1, further communications have been sparse.

“We will continue to communicate directly with dental patients, as appropriate,” Scollin said Wednesday.

Adirondack Health submitted an open letter to the public this past October about the proposed ER closure, but recent communications about the ER’s future have been relegated to two private meetings between Adirondack Health, the state DOH and local officials. The Enterprise’s first Freedom of Information Law request for the ER proposed closure plan was denied, and a second FOIL request for the plan has yet to be approved or denied. When it comes to the dental facility’s proposed closure, the facility’s staff member said even they hadn’t heard about their facility’s future from Adirondack Health.

In February, the dental care staff member said they were fielding calls from patients asking where they could go to the dentist after the closure, but the employee said options for dental treatment around the area are limited. The closest hospital-owned practice is at the Alice Hyde Medical Center in Malone, and the dental care employee didn’t think Alice Hyde is accepting new patients. The employee said the only answer they could give current patients at Adirondack Health Dental Care was to call the 1-800 number on the back of their insurance card and ask which local dentists the insurance company would work with.

It’s no secret that Adirondack Health is experiencing staffing problems and financial losses across its facilities, which include the dental care facility, the Lake Placid ER and the Mercy Living Center — a nursing home the hospital operates in Tupper Lake. At the dental care facility alone, for instance, Adirondack Health has been trying to recruit a new dental hygienist for the past three years.

“In a small practice, that kind of vacancy — for that long — makes it very difficult to achieve productivity and see enough patients to make the numbers work,” Scollin told the Enterprise in February.

Scollin said Adirondack Health’s annual financial loss from the dental care practice alone is approximately $350,000 each year.

This past October, Scollin placed Adirondack Health’s total financial deficit at around $10 million for 2022. The Lake Placid ER, Mercy Living and Adirondack Health Dental Care contributed to at least $6.9 million of the estimated $10 million deficit last year, according to figures provided by Adirondack Health last year. At the time, Scollin estimated Mercy’s 2022 losses at around $4.4 million and estimated around $2.2 million in losses from Lake Placid’s ER from January through June 2022. Before that, Adirondack Health suffered multi-million dollar losses during a forced pause in some outpatient and other revenue-producing services throughout the early weeks of the pandemic.