Three health care providers from the west side of the Hudson River want to see more residents take advantage of the strides their hospitals have achieved in attaining quality health care.
Hospital presidents from Bon Secours Charity Healthcare System, St. Luke”™s Cornwall Hospital and Orange Regional Medical Center were on hand at the Fountains in Wallkill Aug. 23 to update a full house of Orange County Chamber of Commerce members on new advances the hospitals have to offer.
Allan Atzrott, president and CEO of St. Luke”™s Cornwall Hospital, said he has seen tremendous changes in his 36 years in hospital administration. “In 1979, if you needed a liver biopsy, the only cost-effective alternative was an ultrasound. That meant the surgeon would make an incision, poke around, get the ultrasound done ”“ and you would in the hospital for three days. Last week, I went into the hospital at 7:45 a.m., underwent a minimally invasive biopsy at 8:20, which took 20 minutes, had a CT scan and was home by noon. That night, I went to a concert at Bethel Woods.” (Atzrott”™s biopsy was negative.)
He noted there was “no necessity to go to a university hospital because those same services can be provided in our local hospitals today.”
Saying credit ratings agency Moody”™s does many hospital evaluations, Atzrott told  chamber members, “For the first time in two decades, hospital revenue had the slowest growth. Twenty percent were operating in the red, and 63 percent had a fairly thin margin ”“ between zero and five percent ”“ in the black … and this is before the new health care reform kicks in.”
Physicians and hospitals will see 2 percent cuts across the board for Medicare, said Atzrott, adding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken “a very vigilant approach to step-by-step reductions in Medicaid, particularly in the nursing home industry.” New York ranks among the highest in Medicaid reimbursement in the nation, averaging $1 billion a week.
Government, said Atzrott, while advocating for a better system of health care by seeing agencies consolidate, is now fighting a merger by ProMedica with St. Luke”™s Hospital in Akron, Ohio. “The Federal Trade Commission is all over them to fight the merger. Until they get in sync with what”™s going on,” said Atzrott, “we need to be very concerned.”
Scott Batulis, president and CEO of Orange Regional Medical Center for the past five years, said ORMC had been talking about merging its two hospitals, Arden Hill in Goshen and Horton Hospital in Middletown, for nearly a decade. “Yes, it did happen, and the results are amazing. We”™ve got 383 private rooms, a new neonatal intensive care unit and unlimited potential. I can”™t say enough how pleased I am at the way it all turned out.”
ORMC also moved from paper to electronic health records, choosing the EPIC system, which is also in place in Bon Secours Charity Healthcare System.
Phillip Patterson, president of Bon Secours Charity Healthcare System and of Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern, one of its affiliated hospitals, says the region will continue to grow, and hospitals and nursing home care must grow with it in order to meet the needs of the expanding ”“ and aging ”“ population.
“We continue to look at the demographics,” Patterson said. “Orange County is still the fastest growing, and the region expects to see 16,000 to 17,000 new residents within the next 20 years…and by 2030, one in every five citizens will be over the age of 70. Baby boomers will radically change the way health care is delivered because of the costs associated with aging.”
One of health care”™s biggest challenges, Patterson said, is dealing with the cutting of health care reimbursements to physicians and hospitals while trying to meet the needs of residents. Consumer Reports ranked Good Samaritan Hospital”™s heart program as one of the highest-rated in New York; despite the many kudos  the region”™s hospitals have gotten, they  continue to see a continued outmigration of patients.
There are plans to double Good Samaritan”™s emergency room, and Patterson touted its new affiliation with Mount Sinai. Â “It is important for us to keep our patients safe and also keep them close to home.”
All three hospitals have extensive outreach programs to promote healthy lifestyles. “It”™s a benefit to have all these programs,” said Batulis. “They are a part of the fabric of our organizations ”“ but there is societal responsibility as well.”
“Health care reform means spending less money and providing more difficult, not greater, access to health care,” Atzrott said. “If the government truly wants to cut excess spending, they should close the 3,000 post offices and get out of Afghanistan.”
