Ellis and St. Clare’s Hospitals are pleased to offer an innovative vision for ensuring the quality and continuity of health care services for our community.

Our shared vision, while conceptual at this time, represents our response to what has been recommended by the Berger Commission and is now required by New York State law – that is, to create a single, stronger, more effective health care delivery system for the greater Schenectady region.

The cornerstone of this vision is a new joint governance structure for our community hospitals. It will have a single, unified, self-governing, self-perpetuating Board of Trustees, a single chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief medical officer and chief financial officer. It will have a single medical staff guided by a single set of bylaws and credentialing standards.

Our vision is grounded in a steadfast commitment to ensure continued timely and convenient access to the full range of health care services now provided in our community.

To fulfill this vision, we intend to:

1. Create a state-of-the-art women’s and children’s center, including a new neonatal intensive care unit, that will consolidate and centralize services at a single, convenient site on the Ellis Hospital campus. This facility will give our patients immediate access to sophisticated, full-service hospital care should they require it, and provide physicians with a single, modern, comprehensive facility in which to practice obstetrics and gynecology. Our goal is to establish a center of quality and service excellence that becomes the first choice for women from throughout the greater Schenectady region. 
2. Build on the clinical excellence of our community hospitals and maintain all of the health care services currently provided to the people of our community, including primary and preventive care; emergency services; sophisticated cancer, cardiology and stroke care; and extensive elder care, behavioral health, rehabilitative and therapeutic care services.
3. Maintain and operate both the Ellis and St. Clare’s campuses and realign the facilities and services on each campus for optimal efficiency and convenience. To accomplish this, each campus will require extensive renovation and construction. This is critical to achieving the facility and operating efficiencies that make it possible to provide cost-effective health care in a challenging economic environment.
4. Offer professional affiliation opportunities to all qualified physicians in our community.

This vision has been developed collaboratively by numerous civic leaders, community volunteers and physicians who serve without compensation as members of the boards of St. Clare’s and Ellis Hospitals, along with the senior executives of each hospital.

As we move forward now, from conceptual development to the planning stage, we will seek the input and advice of our medical staffs and employees, community representatives and elected officials, the New York State Department of Health and, of course, the people we serve – the people of our community. We believe that, with your assistance and guidance, we can identify the best ways to serve the complete health care needs of our community in the 21st century.

In the coming months, we will take the following steps:

1. We will hold a series of meetings with physicians, community representatives and elected officials to:
           • Solicit feedback on this shared vision;
           • Ask for specific recommendations on what our plan should look like.
2. We will continue to meet with the leaders and staffs of our hospitals and with physicians and consultants to evaluate the physical capacity of our institutions, the services we deliver and how we deliver them; and the infrastructure needs of our hospitals, all in order to develop alternatives for planning consideration.
3. We will meld the public input and service suggestions we receive with the physical facility alternatives to produce a plan to rationalize services on the two hospital campuses.
4. We will consult with and submit this plan to the New York State Department of Health for review and approval.

Implementing this vision will require substantial financial support from the state and federal governments.

Ellis and St. Clare’s Hospitals are moving ahead. In every step we take, we will put the interests of patients and our community first, abiding by the law and emerging stronger for the future. This vision allows Ellis and St. Clare’s to sustain our respective missions, safeguard as many jobs as possible and provide the highest level of heath care for our community. We believe that by working together we can achieve a stronger health care delivery system for the patients we serve for generations to come.

We value public input on these important community issues and invite your comments and suggestions on this vision. To provide feedback via email, click here. Thank you for your interest.