CMH part of the New Health Coalition | Greene County

ALBANY – Columbia Memorial Hospital in Hudson will join Albany Medical Center under the new Albany Med Health System, the medical center’s president and CEO, Dr. Dennis McKenna, said in a press release Monday.

The partnership includes Saratoga Hospital, Glens Falls Hospital and System Visiting Nurses, providing an extensive regional healthcare network from the mid-Hudson Valley to the North Country.

The four hospitals and visiting nurses share a common visual identity, named after Albany Med Health System. The brand conveys the collaborative extension of adult and pediatric healthcare professionals from hospitals to community-based settings and into the home.

“Our people are the backbone of our brand,” said McKenna, who serves as president and CEO of Albany Med Health System. We are one team, 16,000 professionals strong, ready to take care of the 3 million people of our region.

The system includes 1,520 beds, nearly 100 specialists, 800 physicians and 125 locations, the region’s only children’s hospital, visiting nurses, Albany College of Medicine and a biomedical research organization.

“We are proud of the progress we have made in building our Columbia Memorial Health System,” said CMH President and CEO Jay P. Cahalan said. “Connecting our services and clinics means better care coordination for our patients.”

McKenna said in a press release that the community awareness campaign, which has the tagline “For Everything With You,” is an example of the times when life and medicine intersect. Hospital names will remain the same and exterior signs will show the transition to the system starting in 2023.

System hospitals strengthen communications with integrated electronic medical record. The Epic portal, used throughout the system, allows a patient’s entire health history, with security and accuracy, to be accessible to any medical professional within the system.

“A common, integrated electronic medical record for Albany Med Health System will play a key role in enabling increased collaboration, timely diagnoses and improved, coordinated care,” said Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Jill Johnson VanCuren.

The formation of Albany Med Health System comes as health care providers work closely together to address increasing financial and staffing pressures locally and nationally.

“The number of ‘mass layoffs’ caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has driven nurses and other workers out of the healthcare industry, forcing nonprofit hospitals to turn to for-profit temporary staffing agencies,” McKenna said. They have increased their rates by 213%, causing hospitals operating on historically thin financial margins to face significant financial losses. “

The expanded partnership makes Albany Med Health System the largest and only locally managed health care system and the region’s largest private employer, McKenna said.

“With our own hometown leadership, all decisions are made here, not anywhere else,” he said. “Our patients have driven our growth and we will be the team you trust now and for years to come.”

Albany Medical Center recently eliminated 37 positions in a restructuring plan it hopes will increase revenue. Albany Med Health System spokesman Matt Markham said no layoffs or reductions are expected at Columbia Memorial Health as part of the merger.