Albany Med Health System Evolves Brand for Next Phase of Health Care in Region
- Member organizations unified with singular brand identity
- Deeper coordination of specialized services throughout the region
- Shared electronic medical record to further link System hospitals
- Formation of system reinforces local oversight, long-term sustainability over industry-wide financial and staffing pressures
The Albany Med Health System announced today an evolution of its brand to reflect the unity of its member organizations and its commitment to provide the widest range of medical and surgical services to patients across northeastern New York.
Albany Medical Center, Columbia Memorial Health, Glens Falls Hospital, Saratoga Hospital, and the Visiting Nurses will now share a common visual identity anchored by the Albany Med Health System name and logo. This representation draws upon the identity of Albany Medical Center as the region’s academic medical and tertiary care center. It also conveys the collaborative extension of adult and pediatric specialties from the hospital to community-based locations and to the home.
“Our people are the backbone of our brand,” said Albany Med Health System President and CEO Dennis P. McKenna, MD. “We are one team, 16,000 professionals strong, standing ready to care for the three million people of our region. When patients see the Albany Med Health System brand, they can rest assured they have a direct connection to the most advanced quality services and the largest team of health care experts from the Mid-Hudson Valley to the North Country. We are partners along every step of the journey—because good health makes anything possible.”
ONE CLEAR MESSAGE
Consumers are increasingly seeking easy access to highly specialized care. The Albany Med Health System expands access through collaboration. One brand identity explains the strength and scope of the System from primary to urgent, hospital, surgical, postsurgical, and home care. It demonstrates the links between community hospitals and Albany Medical Center’s advanced services, which extend additional resources through the region and for patients who require a higher level of care.
By the numbers, the System includes:
- Four hospitals
- 1,520 beds
Nearly 100 specialties - 800 physicians
- 125 locations
- The region’s only children’s hospital
- The Albany Med Health System Visiting Nurses
- Albany Medical College, the region’s only medical school
- A biomedical research enterprise
A public awareness campaign also launched today with the tagline With You for Everything, emblematic of the moments in life our workforce shares with patients and students and the limitless potential personal health promises. Hospital names will remain the same and will be shown alongside the Albany Med Health System name and logo. Outdoor signage will begin to transition in 2023.
Jay P. Cahalan, president and CEO of Columbia Memorial Health (CMH), said, “CMH is proud of the progress made in building our system. Connecting our services and clinicians means better care coordination for our patients.”
INCREASED CONNECTIONS
With a shared identity, System hospitals will reinforce their connection through a unified electronic medical record. The implementation of Epic, the electronic medical record that will be used across the Albany Med Health System, will have far-reaching impacts that will lead to better experiences for patients. The platform allows for a patient’s whole health story—with accuracy and security as the leading priorities—to be accessible by any clinician they see within the System. It also redoubles a commitment to patient-centered care.
“A common, integrated electronic medical record platform will play a key role in fulfilling the promise of the Albany Med Health System: increased collaboration, more timely diagnoses and enhanced, coordinated care,” said Saratoga Hospital President and CEO Jill Johnson VanKuren. “Once the platform is in place, every patient at every System location will benefit.”
One electronic medical record will also lead to a singular online portal for patients of Albany Med Health System hospitals. Both are expected to go live in 2024. The patient portal will be accessible through a new Albany Med Health System website that will represent all System hospitals, Albany Medical College, and the Visiting Nurses. The first pages of the System website will be visible by the end of this year, with full development expected to be complete in 2024.
LOCAL OVERSIGHT, LONG-TERM SUSTAINABILITY
Unified branding of the Albany Med Health System comes as health care providers throughout the U.S. work more closely together to face mounting financial and staffing pressures. The “Great Resignation” spurred by the Covid-19 pandemic has led to record numbers of nurses and other staff leaving the health care industry, forcing nonprofit hospitals to turn to for-profit temporary staffing agencies. These agencies have increased their hourly rate by 213 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels in January 2019, leaving hospitals, which historically operate on thin financial margins, with significant financial losses.
“Being part of the Albany Med Health System means much more than just five institutions sharing a common look,” said Paul Scimeca, president and CEO of Glens Falls Hospital. “It is more important now than ever to show the region we are working together toward a common goal of providing everyone with high quality health care—and to showcase the great careers our friends and neighbors can have at all of these excellent institutions.”
In addition to building awareness of the System, the brand campaign seeks to inspire job seekers of the many career opportunities that exist within its organizations by showcasing members of the workforce and their essential role in our region.
“We also offer unique opportunities for nurses to travel within our own System,” said Samantha DiCicco, RN, CEO of the Albany Med Health System Visiting Nurses. “Through our own internal nonprofit contract agency called the Albany Med Health System Staffing Alliance, nurses who may prefer temporary assignments can enjoy flexible work schedules at any of our hospitals. It is mutually beneficial to both nurses and the System, allowing us to support professionals in our region and the critical needs of the System and its patients.”
The brand also celebrates the Albany Med Health System’s distinction as the largest and only locally governed health care system and the region’s largest private employer. Its identity, and efforts to become more financially solvent, aim to preserve the System’s independence.
Dr. McKenna explained, “With leadership in our own hometowns, all decisions are made here, not elsewhere. Our patients have guided our growth, and through continued integration, we will remain the team you trust now and for many years to come.”