KINGSTON >> The head of HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley says he works just about every day to find a corporate partner.
David Scarpino, the president and chief executive officer of the company that operates Kingston’s two hospitals, said at an Ulster County Regional Chamber of Commerce Breakfast on Wednesday that HealthAlliance has been in partnership talks with six companies — HealthQuest of Dutchess County, Albany Medical Center, St. Peter’s Health Care Services in Albany, Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. No agreement has been reached, he said.
He also said HealthAlliance has asked the state for permission to partner with up to 14 smaller health care agencies in the community.
Scarpino gave no timetable for when deals might be made, but said: “We need to get this done.”
“I would love to have it done today,” he said. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t talk to four or five potential partners.”
HealthAlliance operates hospitals on Broadway and Mary’s Avenue in Midtown Kingston (formerly called Kingston Hospital and Benedictine Hospital, respectively) and Margaretville Memorial Hospital in Delaware County.
The company announced two years ago that it would consolidate its Kingston operations into the Mary’s Avenue building and close the Broadway building within 18 months due to steep financial losses.
But, last September, Scarpino said HealthAlliance had put the consolidation plan on hold upon recognizing the need “to work with a larger system.”
“We will not survive the future unless we partner with a larger system,” he said at the time, shortly after becoming HealthAlliance’s top executive.
On Wednesday, he reiterated that the company still plans to close one of the two hospitals in Kingston, though he did not say whether the Broadway Campus remained the targeted facility.
Part of the original consolidation plan included renovating the Mary’s Avenue building — in part because all emergency services were shifted to the Broadway Campus after the two hospitals affiliated in 2008 — but Scarpino said last fall that the renovation would be cost-prohibitive.
Scarpino said any partnership agreement reached by HealthAlliance will need approval from the state Health Department and Federal Trade Commission, as well as community and political support.
As part of its latest plan, HealthAlliance hopes to establish a “population health management” system in which caregivers, including doctors, would focus on preventive measures, a process that could include house calls. The goal, Scarpino has said, is to keep people healthy enough to stay out of the hospital.
HealthAlliance has said previously that it was awarded $6.5 million by the state Department of Health for its “ongoing consolidation efforts to ensure access to high-quality healthcare in Ulster County.” The company said the money will be used to help with a plan to “collaborate with … affiliates and partner with community physicians.”
Scarpino said the $6.5 million is “startup” money that will help HealthAlliance become stable in the future.
The money comes on top of the $47.6 million the state provided when it mandated Kingston and Benedictine hospitals affiliate under a single corporate umbrella. That order led to the creation of HealthAlliance in 2008.
The scramble for consolidation or affiliation comes during a time of economic uncertainty for many health care facilities. The former St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie declared bankruptcy last year and was taken over this month by Westchester Medical Center, which operates the facility as MidHudson Regional Hospital. St. Francis officials had tried to arrange a takeover by HealthQuest, which is the parent company of Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie and Northern Dutchess Hospital in Rhinebeck, but Westchester Medical outbid HealthQuest.
Date: May 21, 2014