Albany — Albany Medical Center’s four hospitals, medical college, and home health care institution will share a unified logo to reflect their continued efforts to streamline services and branding across the system. , hospital officials announced at a news conference on Monday.
Saratoga Hospital, Glens Falls Hospital, Columbia Memorial Hospital, and Albany Visiting Nurses will retain their original names while adopting the Albany Med circular logo and will be featured in future advertising campaigns.
Dennis P. McKenna, President and CEO of Albany Med Healthy System, said at a press conference with other hospital leaders. “We are his one team of 16,000 strong professionals ready to care for his 3 million people in the region.”
This announcement confirms that Albany Med’s leadership has 37 jobs cut Mainly on the administrative side, at the main Albany campus as part of a major financial restructuring.
Healthcare organizations, including Albany Med, say they are facing unprecedented financial hardships as federal COVID-19 relief funds run out.
Albany Med and other health care providers have been forced to rely on private staffing agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hourly wages for nurses have risen 213%, McKenna said.
Officials are launching their own in-house staffing agency to encourage nurses who enjoy the flexibility of temporary assignments to stay local and work within the Albany health care system.
Hospitals in upstate New York are operating on thin margins, and the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis has pushed up the cost of goods and services across the board, hospital executives said. Meanwhile, reimbursements from insurers such as Medicare and Medicaid were flat.
“We know that a strong year for upstate New York hospitals was probably breakeven or 1% profit margins…then the pandemic hit and ultimately led to a big resignation. The hospital had to decline, McKenna said.
Meanwhile, hospital executives at Albany Med earned seven-figure salaries and bonuses during the pandemic, financial documents show. It is said that over $10,000 was paid. Hospital federal filings recently compiled by USA Today.
The highest-paid Albany Medical College officer that year was the hospital’s former president and CEO, James J. Barbah, who earned more than $2.3 million. Barba said he resigned in March 2020.
McKenna said last week’s layoffs were just “one step in many” of a fiscal easing plan that will increase clinical employment and improve efficiency across the hospital system. building will expand the number of beds in the four hospitals, allowing the facility to accept more transfers from other hospitals.
In addition to strengthening its brand, the healthcare system plans to deepen connections between its four hospitals and improve coordination of regional specialty services.
“On our campus here, we get calls every year from probably 50 to 100 different hospitals wanting to transfer patients here. There are services that do, frankly, in areas where no one else does,” McKenna said. “But there are many other cases where any of the other three hospitals in our system are absolutely fantastic places to get treatment.”
The hospitals will eventually share a common digital medical record system and one patient portal, with these capabilities expected to go live in 2024.
