SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Hospital's caller CEO Jill Johnson VanKuren has her enactment chopped retired for her.
She took the helm during a play of modulation and uncertainty for the wellness attraction industry, astatine the process extremity of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals are inactive grappling with terrible staffing crises, furniture shortages and an impending pandemic-induced fiscal cliff.
VanKuren — who succeeds Angelo Calbone, who retired successful August after 16 years — said she believes determination are nary casual fixes for the large problems facing U.S. wellness attraction providers.
"The wide authorities of wellness successful this country, it's a small scary," VanKuren said. "It's precarious close now. What I speech astir a batch with my squad is that our intent is the same. We got into wellness attraction for a crushed ... we volition fig this retired arsenic a assemblage and find that way guardant from within, due to the fact that determination is nary extracurricular answer."
For Saratoga Hospital, which became affiliated with the Albany Med Health System successful 2017, that means moving with its 3 sister hospitals to ramp up practice and found shared physics accusation systems.
Previously, VanKuren worked for Maryland-based wellness attraction elephantine MedStar Health, which comprises 10 hospitals successful and astir Baltimore and Washington D.C., astir recently, arsenic the main operating serviceman astatine MedStar's Franklin Square location.
VanKuren, her wife, Cheryl VanKuren, and sons, Alex and Nathan, moved successful August to Saratoga Springs, settling respective blocks from the hospital's main field astatine 211 Church St.
The Spa City was a earthy acceptable for the outdoorsy family, who bask hiking, biking and skiing.
"I emotion that it's a metropolis surrounded by truthful overmuch nature," VanKuren said. "You person each of the entree and civilization of the metropolis but you conscionable person to assistance your caput near and close and spot the beauteous mountains and landscapes."
Lately, VanKuren rides an electrical scooter to work, but she said she is looking guardant to snowshoeing her mode to the bureau erstwhile wintertime sets in.
She brings 17 years of acquisition to the job. Much similar Albany Med, the MedStar strategy was connected a way of maturation and accrued practice with different determination hospitals, but the Baltimore-based strategy is astir 20 years up successful the process, VanKuren said.
The Saratoga Springs facility's gradual integration with Albany Med volition yet person cost-saving benefits and volition besides alteration doctors to pass easy with their patients' different providers, she said.
Fragmented fee-for-service medicine and its messiness of disjointed and redundant paperwork correspond the past, VanKuren said.
"You extremity up filling retired paperwork 7 antithetic times and you extremity up answering the aforesaid questions 7 antithetic times ... the imaginativeness and the extremity is to marque the process much seamless."
Modern medicine is "about doing much for the diligent holistically and little transactionally," VanKuren said. "How bash we instrumentality attraction of the diligent much efficaciously passim the continuum of care?"
Consolidating services enables Albany Med and its affiliates to grow their geographic footprint and harvester their bargaining powerfulness erstwhile negotiating fees with security providers. It besides streamlines the diligent acquisition and provides them with entree to a broader scope of aesculapian services, infirmary leaders say.
Saratoga Hospital's affiliation with the larger infirmary system made it easier to enlistee aesculapian expertise and physique retired its crab attraction unit, VanKuren said.
"We person been competitors historically and present we are learning to beryllium much collaborative and beryllium much businesslike and effectual with the resources that we have."
To showcase this accrued collaboration, the strategy precocious unveiled a unified logo and branding campaign.
But astatine MedStar, VanKuren said she besides observed the increasing pains that travel with maturation and consolidation, including worries by unit and patients that idiosyncratic hospitals would suffer a consciousness of identity.
Like different Albany Med affiliates, Saratoga Hospital has its ain committee and administration. The Saratoga wellness center's unsocial civilization is something VanKuren said she appreciates and wants to preserve.
"As an idiosyncratic facility, present astatine Saratoga, we person a precise beardown consciousness of pride, assemblage and individuality here. That's thing that needs to beryllium maintained."
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