Auburn Community Hospital signs “collaboration agreement” with St. Joseph’s Health, URMC

AUBURN, N.Y. — The board of trustees of Auburn Community Hospital (ACH) has approved a “collaboration agreement” with St. Joseph’s Health of Syracuse.

The pact also includes the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), St. Joseph’s Health said in a news release issued Wednesday.

The agreement enables the three health systems to jointly develop and share new programs and services. ACH will continue to operate as an independent, separately licensed community hospital and maintain its existing board governance structure.

The hospitals contend they designed the agreement to “improve community health and quality of care for Auburn-area residents by sharing information and resources across the three systems.”

Health professionals in Auburn will be able to “more easily collaborate” with those in Syracuse and Rochester, and patients will benefit from “easier access” to the services of the larger hospitals.

Auburn–area patients can “find nearly any service they need within this collaborative network,” whether it’s in Auburn or through specialized care in either Syracuse or Rochester.

“Over the past 10 years as we have worked to keep ACH strong and strategically-positioned for the dynamic environment we are in, we have been engaged in numerous discussions with multiple organizations,” Scott Berlucchi, CEO of Auburn Community Hospital, said in the St. Joseph’s news release. “Among the key criteria our board, physician leadership and senior leadership team used to evaluate potential partners was a strong alignment and compatibility with the ACH culture as well as our mission, which is to provide the best in patient care and promote population health.”

The agreement “commits” the three health systems to “work more closely together to identify and meet the overall community health-care needs,” the release said.

“As our health care system evolves, there is a growing need for us to work with larger health systems to improve access to specialty services right here in Cayuga County,” Berlucchi added.

Assisting ACH

As part of this new relationship, St. Joseph’s Health and URMC will support ACH’s primary-care network and help develop care-management programs and other services that will “position the hospital and its affiliates to meet the challenges of population health.”

St. Joseph’s Health and URMC will also assist ACH with physician recruitment, “quality improvement” initiatives and the sharing of other “best practices” to increase clinical and operational efficiencies, and “improve patient safety and the overall patient experience.” The organizations expect the new services to include neurology, cancer care, orthopedics, and cardiology.

“While St. Joseph’s Health has been providing specialty care for patients living in Auburn for many years, this collaboration will enhance the coordination of care for patients, making it easier for them to navigate the healthcare system,” Leslie Paul Luke, president and CEO at St. Joseph’s Health, said in the release.

With a workforce of more than 1,000 employees ACH is the largest employer in Cayuga County, St. Joseph’s said. The hospital has a combined medical staff of more than 300 medical professionals and multiple primary care sites.

The Syracuse hospital describes ACH as a “health-care delivery system” that includes the 99-bed hospital; an 80-bed long-term care and rehabilitation center; 3 urgent-care centers, along with primary-care and specialty-care services.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com