- Its own corporate identity.
- Its own management structure, executives, directors, managers and supervisors.
- Its own Foundation, and continues to raise funds to be used solely for itself.
Proof that partnership is good medicine.
The Albany Med Health System
No one knows this place we call home better than we do. Albany Medical Center Hospital, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital and Saratoga Hospital have proud traditions of serving our communities for more than a century. Together, we are one strong, diverse system that will sustain these traditions for generations to come.
The Albany Med Health System
The Albany Med Health System Is Very Much a Story of These Times We’re Living In
2013 – Albany Medical Center Hospital and Saratoga Hospital join to create Malta Med Emergent Care.
2016 – Albany Medical Center Hospital and Columbia Memorial Health finalize their affiliation agreement as a new kind of strategic alliance to enhance clinical services while preserving local governance of both institutions.
2017 – Albany Medical Center Hospital and Saratoga Hospital finalize their affiliation agreement.
2020 – Albany Medical Center Hospital, Columbia Memorial Health and Saratoga Hospital introduce the Albany Med Health System.
2020 – Glens Falls Hospital and Albany Medical Center Hospital finalize their affiliation agreement, expanding the System.
The Albany Med Health System, which includes Albany Medical Center Hospital, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital and Saratoga Hospital, is the region’s only freestanding, regionally governed not-for-profit health system. Harnessing the collective expertise of each institution, the System has 1,520 hospital beds, 800 physicians and 125 modern and convenient locations serving three million people in 25 counties of northeastern New York and western New England. It provides a connected regional network that affords high-quality care, typically associated with metropolitan centers.
The health care industry has been undergoing remarkable change in recent years. This has been due in large part to the Affordable Care Act. That federal legislation increased the responsibility placed on providers to proactively improve the health status of the communities they serve, a concept referred to as “Population Health Management.”
In response, all across the country, hospitals and health systems have pursued numerous and greatly varied alliances, affiliations and partnerships to achieve that goal. Each approach has been unique to itself, and that is certainly true of our system.
Capitalizing on the Strengths of Each Partner
We capitalize on the strengths of each partner, including the extraordinary role each plays in its home community, while at the same time making Albany Medical Center Hospital’s advanced care readily available to patients from the Mid-Hudson Valley to the North Country.
The Best of Both Worlds
Patients of the Albany Med Health System have the best of both worlds: community-based care from providers they know and trust, plus easy access to highly specialized services via the region’s only academic health sciences center, right here, close to home.
In 2019, the System saw more than two million outpatient and off-site visits at more than 120 locations.
Lasting Benefits
In today’s health care environment, it simply doesn’t make sense—medically or economically—for healthcare facilities to go it alone. As partners in the Albany Med Health System, Albany Medical Center Hospital, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital and Saratoga Hospital draw on each other’s expertise to offer so many important benefits:
- As part of a larger system, each partner can more easily recruit and retain talented providers and other staff.
- Together, we’re able to better identify and implement best practices that lead to one level of quality care across the system.
- We can streamline and standardize systems to hold the line on costs and improve coordination of care.
Four Partners Working Together
Serving the Greater Capital Region, Mid-Hudson Valley, the North Country and Western New England
The Albany Med Health System is designed to preserve the strengths of each partner. Under our shared agreement, each maintains:
- Its own Board of Trustees.
- Its own medical staff leadership, medical staff and medical staff bylaws.
- Its own employees, and continues to determine its own salary and benefit structure and maintain its own employment policies.
The Albany Med Health System is an affiliation of our respective organizations that allows us to take advantage of one another’s strengths. What this means for our communities is a local health care delivery system that is more efficient and easier for patients to navigate.
