Can anyone tell me about Smithtown General Hosp? (Long Island)

[politicat]

A friend mentioned today that she'd heard that the hospital that was the mythical base of Doc Webster (from the Callahan Series, by Spider Robinson) was closed and basically left to rot.

I found pictures of it (here: http://www.lioddities.com/Abandoned/Smithtown.htm ) but no explanation why a facility that big was just abandoned, and not reused for something useful, like a homeless shelter or a youth center or something.

It seemed quite the waste and rather sad, too, especially as it looked like the place was intentionally trashed when it was closed to make it hard to rehabilitate

[Princess Turandot]

1. I believe that Smithtown initially merged with a small non-profit..

hospital system (there are no for-profit chains in NYS) and was subsequently closed several years ago. I assume that it was closed because of lack of volume/finances, and because the other system (Episcopal Health) had another hospital reasonably near-by. The switchover from state-set rates to negotiated rates in NYS about 10 years ago was quite harmful to smaller facilities.

I don't know this for certain, but I would bet that Episcopal Health either sold the land to someone who had not yet started work on the property when the photos were taken or was still looking for a buyer. The land would have been worth too much money for a non-profit to ever just give away to another organization as a homeless shelter etc. The vandalism was probably just from teens/kids with nothing better to do. If the building had a value to a future buyer beyond the land, it would in all likelihood have been secured.