Community Health
Adirondack Medical Center, and hospitals across New York State, are participating in a new public health initiative. In an effort to support the Commissioner of Health's statewide mission to improve the health of all New Yorkers, the Commissioner asked hospitals to participate in a collaborative approach to community health assessment and planning and to document those efforts in this Community Service Plan. This initiative seeks to integrate traditional medical services with public health interventions that stimulate positive behavioral changes to improve health status.
Due to the size of Adirondack Medical Center's service area, the hospital participated in two regional community health assessment initiatives - a six county initiative facilitated by the Adirondack Rural Health Network (ARHN), and a three county initiative led by the local health departments. These initiatives used similar processes to determine community health priorities.
Both initiatives included a range of community partners, including local health departments, to address the Commissioner's public health priorities identified in the Prevention Agenda toward the Healthiest State. By participating in this public health effort, Adirondack Medical Center supports the overall goals of the New York State Health Department which are to focus on primary/secondary disease prevention, promote access to quality health care services and eliminate health care disparities where they exist.
For the six county initiative, ARHN provided a forum where the various community partners could come together to effectively collaborate and to provide resources for the development of each county's Community Health Assessment and each hospital's Community Service Plan. It was agreed early on in the process that ARHN would prepare a comprehensive collection and analysis of data regarding the health issues and needs in Essex, Fulton, Hamilton, Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties. The hospital partners include Adirondack Medical Center, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, Glens Falls Hospital, Moses-Ludington Hospital, Nathan Littauer Hospital, and Saratoga Hospital. The report is entitled Building a Healthy Community.
For the three county initiative, the Local Health Departments (LHD) facilitated the process. The LHDs compiled the community health data and worked with community partners to analyze it and use it to choose local health priorities. The hospital partners include Adirondack Medical Center, Alice Hyde Medical Center, Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital, Elizabethtown Community Hospital, and Moses-Ludington Hospital. The report is entitled MAPPing our way to a Healthier Community.
Both reports are comprised of three parts which reflect the collaborative nature of the process:
1. A compilation of health care data and analysis regarding the health status of the residents of the region and each county therein
2. The Local Health Departments' Community Health Assessments for each county as appendices
3. The hospitals' Community Service Plans as appendices
Both processes achieved the Commissioner's goal of creating a collaborative approach to enable the participants to meet the needs of our communities while avoiding duplicative efforts and achieving economies of scale. By collaborating with community health partners and developing a collaborative approach, all participating members will be better able to meet the needs of the community by focusing resources on health care needs that are common to the region.
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AMC is accredited by the Joint Commission. Click here to view the Joint Commission Public Notice. |
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AMC is accredited by the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program. |
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Adirondack Medical Center's Bariatric Program and Dr. Michael Hill have been designated as a Center of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. |
