It can be disheartening when minor illnesses strike during a winter getaway upstate. Instead of heading straight to the hospital emergency room, however, visitors in the Mid-Hudson Valley who find themselves dealing with sprains, strains, cuts, fractures, and respiratory symptoms can consider seeing a community clinician in the Albany Med Health System.
With more than 15 rapid and urgent care centers across the region, providers in the Albany Med Health System—the area’s only locally governed health care system—treat illnesses and injuries for patients of all ages in comfortable, state-of-the-art settings close to home or where they’re staying.
Seven days a week, patients have access to highly trained providers who provide the care they need to get back on their feet and on their way. In Columbia, Greene, and Ulster counties, the Albany Med Health System operates urgent care clinics in Coxsackie and Saugerties, and rapid care clinics in Catskill, Copake, and Valatie through its community-based providers, Albany Medical Center and Columbia Memorial Health (CMH).
“Our urgent care centers are staffed by providers with training and experience in emergency medicine. They have the skills and knowledge needed to accurately and quickly diagnose each patient,” says Dr. Michael Weisberg, the chief of emergency medicine at CMH who also oversees its rapid care sites in Catskill, Copake, and Valatie.
By linking together providers in more than 100 different medical specialties with the region’s only academic medical center and Level 1 adult and pediatric trauma center, the Albany Med Health System is expanding access to healthcare across the region, particularly in rural communities where it’s needed most.
“Many of our providers have been in the area for years,” Dr. Weisberg says. “Our patients are our neighbors, and we have a true connection to our community.”
For a complete list of rapid and urgent care providers, visit Albanymed.org.
This article appears in Fall 2024/Winter 2025.
