Strength through partnership
Hughes spoke of a partnership scenario that could bring specialists to the area on a visit akin to the traditional village doctor making house calls.
“Let’s say there’s a specialist that works in New York City, but it’s difficult to get him up here because there’s not enough patients,” Hughes said. “Well, three hospital services can bring him up to do three times as many patients. It suddenly becomes worth his trip to come up and visit those hospitals.”
Making local healthcare a more attractive option for patients has positive consequences for the region as a whole. “Our community in Ulster County is very much a tight-knit group,” Ratner said. “Any time we can keep it local we try to do that because it helps the economic climate of the county. That’s obviously very much on the minds of many of our patients as well. And they want to make sure they’re receiving the best care possible.”
Ratner would like people who have homes in the Hudson Valley and New York City to make the choice to receive care outside the hustle and bustle. “Oftentimes what we see is folks from the city with second homes in the area,” Ratner said. “If it is an elective surgery, they might be interested in coming north and recuperating in their second home before heading back into the city. Interestingly enough, in certain cases if you’re offering a good quality product, we’re seeing more and more people staying local.”
