St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center is continuing to partner with smaller regional hospitals throughout upstate New York. The latest venture is a collaboration with Rome Memorial Hospital.
Rome Memorial will still operate as an independent, separately licensed hospital, with local control, but a new agreement allows patients in Rome to have access to technology and services from the much bigger hospital in Syracuse.
St. Joseph’s has done this in other communities and president Kathryn Ruscitto says it works in part, because each community uses expertise from St. Joe’s to fill medical gaps they might have, and it will be no different in this situation.
"In one community, it resulted in the building of a dialysis center, in Lewis County it was access to psychiatry services and better home care. It really depends on what the Rome community wants its focus to be,” said Ruscitto.
A team at Rome Memorial will be figuring that out over the next three to six months, and then the medical collaboration can begin. Rusicitto says this partnership also allows smaller communities to focus more on prevention, as opposed to just treating illness. But she also says it’s an economic development issue.
"Many times, these are the main employers, or a major employer, in these communities, and we’re positioned in a way to help them prepare for the future of health care reform, and make sure they’ll survive in their communities for another hundred years.”
