Carthage Area Hospital CEO discusses planned renovations to expand clinical space

CARTHAGE, N.Y. — Carthage Area Hospital is renovating its main campus building so it can provide more patient care at the facility.

It’s already moved its administration and several non-clinical departments to the Franklin Place Professional Building in the nearby village of West Carthage.

The hospital is moving to what it calls a “medical-village model” under the delivery system reform incentive payment (DSRIP) program, the hospital announced April 24.

DSRIP is the “main mechanism by which New York State will implement the Medicaid redesign team (or MRT) waiver amendment,” according to the website of the New York State Department of Health. DSRIP’s purpose is to “fundamentally restructure” the health-care delivery system by reinvesting in the Medicaid program, with the primary goal of reducing “avoidable” hospital use 25 percent over five years.

“The goal is, in the end, [that] the entire system performs better because we’re able to offer that coordinated care and reduce those avoidable hospital visits,” says Rich Duvall, CEO of Carthage Area Hospital. He spoke with BJNN on May 9.

Duvall says the hospital is working to bring back other services to the main campus, so it can be a “one-stop shop” for patients.

“It’s not just acute care, but also other outpatient services [as well],” says Duvall.

He says he’s satisfied that the moves that Carthage Area Hospital has made so far will help it reduce the impact on Medicaid.

“Now having those [non-clinical] departments out of the hospital, we can then renovate that space in the main campus to help facilitate the outpatient care,” Duvall adds.

Most of the renovation work will happen “over the next year.”

Lunco Corporation of Carthage will work with the hospital on the facility’s redesign. The contractor on the project is “still to be determined.”

“Most of the work we’ve actually been able to do with our internal maintenance crew,” Duvall says.

He says he doesn’t know what the project cost will be as of now.

“The first step was to remove those departments from the hospital, so currently [we’re] working on renovating some of those spaces to be used for other purposes within the hospital,” says Duvall.

Non-clinical departments moved
Carthage Area Hospital in April moved its executive and administration offices to another building in neighboring West Carthage as it works to “expand clinical space at the main campus” in Carthage.

They’ll be operating in the Franklin Place Professional Building at 40 Franklin St., located off State Route 26 in West Carthage, the hospital said.

The Black River separates the villages of Carthage and West Carthage in Jefferson County. Carthage is located in the town of Wilna and West Carthage is part of the town of Champion.

Besides the administration offices, the organization has also moved its corporate compliance, human resources, and marketing and quality assurance departments, along with the medical-staff coordinator to the same building.

Those non-clinical departments moved earlier in April.

All departments will operate “less than two miles” from the main campus.

The hospital’s patient accounting and fiscal departments were already located at 40 Franklin Place, Suite 1A.

All hospital staff telephone numbers and emails remain the same.

Established in 1965, Carthage Area Hospital is a 25-bed hospital, serving about 83,000 residents in Jefferson, northern Lewis and southern St. Lawrence counties.

The hospital also operates a network of community-based clinics, including its Family Health Center, Pediatric Clinic and Women’s Way to Wellness and provides a range of specialty care, including general surgery, orthopedics, urology, physical therapy and behavioral health.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com