For three years, Irene Campbell has enjoyed the relief from arthritis pain provided by the therapy pool at UPMC St. Margaret. After this week, however, the 81-year-old Aspinwall resident wonders where she will get that relief. On Thursday, when arthritis patients get out of the soothing warm water of the therapy pool, it will be for the last time. Hospital officials have decided to close the pool and use the space it occupies for services related to inpatient care. "It eases your arthritis, you can walk better," Campbell said. "You do exercises and stuff that you couldn't do out of the water and afterward you don't hurt - you are tired, but you don't hurt." Mary Josefoski, St. Margaret spokeswoman, said the pool space is needed for other departments such as the pharmacy and central supply. "That program was very much used by those community members," Josefoski said. "We regret having to close it, but we do need the space." Some of the pool users, who number about 60 total for the four classes, believe that costs, a recurring problem in health care today, is a factor in closing the pool. Arthritis patients pay $45 for the eight-week sessions, which include two 45-minute classes per week involving more than 60 exercises in the warm water. Besides the cost of heating and maintaining the pool, the program requires paying an instructor and lifeguard for each class. Dorothy Shank, 71, of Penn Hills, has been attending the classes for more than two years. She said there is not one person in any of the classes who would mind paying more to keep the program going. "It could be run and be very profitable if they had an interest in running it, but they have no interest in running it," Shank said. Josefoski emphasized that the cost of the program is not the problem. "What we are facing now is a critical constraint on space," she said. "We desperately need all the square footage we can find in the hospital for clinical programs and programs to support patient care." "We couldn't continue to afford to provide that space when we have such critical space constraints and need for patient services." "They told us that they were expanding the emergency room and they needed the space for storage," Shank said. Josefoski said no decision has been made on the use of the space but it would not be used simply for storage. "This is what gets me: they are taking the facility away from people who need it," Shank said. "It's not recreational. It's people being sent there by doctors because they really need it. Shank, Campbell and Frances Taylor, 79, of Blawnox, who started as a patient in the program and later became an instructor, all said the demand for the program has been high even though it requires a doctor's prescription. They said one indication of the demand is that when patients receive their prescriptions, they do not register and send them into the hospital by mail for fear they will be lost or arrive too late. They said patients routinely traveled to the hospital to hand deliver their prescriptions and register in person to ensure their place in the class. Henry Luck, executive vice president of the Arthritis Foundation's Western Pennsylvania Chapter, said the hospital notified the foundation about its plans to close the pool probably before the patients knew. "We've been working with the hospital to place patients with other programs," Luck said. He said there are a number of other pool therapy programs in Allegheny County including the Allegheny Valley YMCA in Harrison, the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill, the Veterans Administration Hospital on Highland Drive and Schenley Gardens, a senior citizens housing complex off Bigelow Boulevard in Pittsburgh. "This is a great preventative medicine program," Campbell said. "Doing exercises to keep you moving - that's the thing to keep you independent and keep you out of the wheelchair."

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