A Dobbs Ferry hospital has unveiled a new health care pilot program that will keep the facility from closing its doors for good.

The pilot program will merge the Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry with its parent company, St. John?s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers. The facility will become a hybrid hospital and will incorporate emergency medicine, community services and disease management.

Patients, doctors and community leaders have been up in arms ever since the state put Community Hospital on a list of hospitals to be closed. A panel called the Berger Commission released a report last year aimed at improving New York's health care system by eliminating empty hospital beds.

The hospital filed a lawsuit to stay open, saying it is profitable and needed in the community. A judge ruled in favor of the hospital, issuing a temporary injunction that kept the facility open.

The hospital will still be giving up some beds, but officials say over time there will be benefits. The emergency room is slated to get a cardiac holding center. Officials also say the Ashikari Breast Cancer Center will also stay open.

For a press conference on the new pilot program, go to channel 612 on your iO digital cable box and select iO Extra.

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