Page 41 - 2021 Westchester County Economic Development Guide
P. 41

                                   Above: The local building trades - including members of Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley - were integral to outfitting the Westchester County Center into a COVID Vaccine hub, and
were a critical part of the County’s pandemic response.
NORTHWELL HEALTH
Northwell Health is a nonprofit
healthcare network that is New York State’s largest healthcare provider and private employer, with more than 74,000 employees in 2020.
“We all came together in unity to fight this virus. When you work together and work as a team, it’s amazing what can happen. Competitors worked together, different disciplines in the medical field worked together.... We have extraordinary potential to do a lot better than we ever have before if we work together, focus on the right thing, care about each other and focus on protecting the community.” —Michael J. Dowling, President and CEO of Northwell Health, Co-Author of Leading Through a Pandemic
WESTCHESTER MEDICAL CENTER
HEALTH NETWORK (WMCHEALTH)
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on eight campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians.
“We are deeply honored to be entrusted with the care of our friends and neighbors. We have always known how important our mission and charge is to the communities we serve across the 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. To know that thousands have stepped up to rally in support of our work has been a beacon to all of us.” —Michael Israel, President and CEO of WMCHealth
WMCHEALTH: RISING TO
THE CHALLENGE
As New York State became an epicenter of COVID-19, WMCHealth responded to protect the health of area residents by creating robust telemedicine options, and opening COVID-19 testing programs. Today it is a regional coordinator for vaccine distribution across the Hudson Valley.
Pivoting to Telemedicine
In 2015, the network launched a leading-edge telemedicine program to improve healthcare outcomes in New York’s 6,200-square-mile Hudson Valley region. As COVID-19 spread, the network was able to leverage that experience to enable physicians and other providers to offer contactless and convenient virtual care for patients who had non-urgent healthcare needs – while patients with urgent situations continued to receive care in emergency rooms with no delay. WMCHealth’s ability to ramp up a telemedicine service for their patients has been based upon deep experience in telehealth in different settings.
“We had established well-developed, specialized practices in TeleICU, TeleTrauma and TeleStroke care, as well as Mobile ICU in transfer in our ambulances,” says Corey Scurlock, MD, MBA, Director of eHealth at WMCHealth. “So, thanks to the forward-thinking and vision of our leadership, when COVID-19 came, we already had experience within the organization to scale up in a different setting.”
A Regional Pioneer in Testing Services
Another major component to WMCHealth’s response to the pandemic has been the creation of a large-scale testing program deployed at or near its hospital campuses across the Hudson Valley.
“We were able to set up testing very quickly and very early. This enabled us to test people from all over the tri-state area, as testing was not widely available in the earlier days of the pandemic,” says Anthony Costello, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
Initially, COVID-19 diagnostic testing was offered, followed by the addition of antibody testing options. Antibody test specimens are processed by Westchester Medical Center’s on-site, board- certified clinical and anatomic laboratory services.
The Hudson Valley HUB for
COVID-19 Vaccines
Westchester Medical Center is serving as the coordinator for the Hudson Valley Region Hub of New York State’s Regional Vaccine Network. Following state and federal guidelines, WMCHealth is collaborating with a broad group of hospitals, healthcare organizations and agencies, community organizations and many other stakeholders in developing plans to ensure the safe, equitable and efficient distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine across Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
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      WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE 39
   © Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc.









































































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