For decades, Columbia Memorial Health (CMH) has provided vital, locally based healthcare services for patients across Columbia, Greene, and Dutchess counties. For hospitals and healthcare groups that serve mostly rural populations, maintaining a strong physical presence and a team of top-notch providers is no easy feat. In the last decade, financial and staffing pressures have resulted in the acquisitions or closures of many independent hospitals across the country.
With the start of CMH's strategic affiliation with Albany Medical Center in 2016, the healthcare group took a vital step toward preserving and enhancing the strength of its locally based care.
Over the last six years, as additional local hospitals and community health centers throughout the region joined Albany Medical Center as affiliates, the network developed into a single integrated system called the Albany Med Health System. In addition to Albany Medical Center and Columbia Memorial Health, the System also includes Albany Medical College, Glens Falls Hospital, Saratoga Hospital, and the Albany Med Health System Visiting Nurses, a home healthcare agency.
Today, the System offers patients convenient access to the widest range of medical and surgical services in northeast New York. The strength and scope of the System ranges from primary to urgent, hospital, surgical, postsurgical, and home care. Patients benefit from the enhanced collaboration between their community healthcare teams and Albany Medical Center's advanced services, which extend additional network resources and provide a higher level of care to those who need it. More than 100 areas of specialty care are offered within the Albany Med Health System, many of which are usually unavailable in rural communities.
"CMH is proud of the progress made in building our system," says Jay P. Cahalan, president and CEO of Columbia Memorial Health. "Connecting our services and clinicians means better care coordination for our patients." On January 1, 2023, CMH's chief operating officer Dorothy M. Urschel, DNP will succeed Cahalan after his retirement as the organization's president and CEO.
With the System's latest evolution, patients will notice that the names of their local hospital or health centers will begin to be shown alongside the Albany Med Health System name and new logo.
"We are one team, 16,000 professionals strong, standing ready to care for the three million people of our region," says Albany Med Health System President and CEO Dennis P. McKenna, MD. "When patients see the Albany Med Health System brand, they can rest assured they have a direct connection to the most advanced quality services and the largest team of health care experts from the Mid-Hudson Valley to the North Country."
Going forward, System providers will also have access to a unified electronic medical record called Epic. When it is implemented in 2024, a patient's entire health story—with accuracy and data security as leading priorities—will be retrievable by any System clinician, helping to ensure a seamless experience at every visit and expand access to higher levels of care.
"A common, integrated electronic medical record platform will play a key role in fulfilling the promise of the Albany Med Health System: increased collaboration, more timely diagnoses, and enhanced, coordinated care," says Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Jill Johnson VanKuren. "Once the platform is in place, every patient at every system location will benefit." The use of the single electronic medical record will also lead to a unified online patient portal, expected to go live in 2024.
The formation of the Albany Med Health System makes it the largest and only locally governed health care system and the region's largest private employer. "With leadership in our own hometowns, all decisions are made here, not elsewhere," says Dr. McKenna. "Our patients have guided our growth, and through continued integration, we will remain the team you trust now and for many years to come.