Lakeside held a community forum Wednesday night. The health system wanted to inform the public about the impact of Unity's plan. It said a new primary care facility poses a threat that could take patients away and put the hospital and employees jobs in jeopardy.

Those YNN spoke to at the meeting were not so sure, and they wanted more information.

"I was always under the impression that competition was always good, but sometimes if you have too much competition of the same thing in the same spot, it becomes counterproductive," said Ronn Koein, Brockport resident.

"I don't see that a doctor's office is going to shut down more or take patients away from a health system. I have a choice if I want to use Lakeside or I want to use Unity and I believe that choice is what we're given as a free right," said Nina Farnsworth of Bergen.

Unity still needs to obtain a certificate of use from the state department of health in order to provide medical services at the new location.

Unity Health broke ground in December on an 18,000 square foot primary care facility near the intersection of Routes 31 and 19 in the town of Sweden. The plan is to relocate an existing OBGYN practice there from across the street, in addition to providing primary care and other specialty services.

"There are about 8,000 people who live in the zip code of Brockport; 5,000 of those patients either use our OBGYN practice or primary care practices that we have in Spencerport or North Greece or Chili Center. Many of those patients have asked if we can bring similar services closer to home, and that's what we're doing," said Stewart Putnam, CEO of Unity Health.

Unity's plan isn't sitting well with the folks at Lakeside Health Care Systems. Lakeside, who says 20,000 people live in the Brockport zip code, believes that if Unity comes into the community, it will take away patients, and possibly jobs from the hospital.

Leaders at Lakeside say their facility employs around 740 people and adds $30 million annually in the Brockport area economy. They also say that many of the services it provides the community will be duplicated at Unity's new facility.

"Our goal is to talk with the state and talk with the planning agencies to, let's stop, let's look at what the true need is,” said Jim Wissler, CEO of Lakeside Health. “In light of the Accountable Care Act that the President has proposed, we know a lot of those things will be in place. Let's look at what that impact is, let's look at this region, and do this with a fair analysis of what is truly needed."

Unity needs a certificate of need from the New York State Department of Health to provide medical services at the new location. The Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency is in the process of collecting data that it will turn over to the state to determine if that certificate of need is granted.

"What we try to look at is,” said Fran Weisberg of Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency, “how many physicians are out there. When we look at the trends going forward, what is the need out now and going forward, and what exists right now and how you marry that."

That data should be complete in the next few weeks.

Unity would like to have the new medical facility up and running by June.