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It is the same situation with heart disease.
“If you are a true community hospital, you have to treat the most prevalent diseases, and that’s cancer and heart disease,” says Ferreri.
The quest to be the cardiac-care provider of choice for Westchester residents has also expanded. White Plains and NewYork- Presbyterian/Lawrence Hospitals have upgraded or added to their cardiac- catheterization capabilities recently. (Among the treatments available in a cardiac- catheterization lab are stents, biopsies, internal pacemaker implantation, and emergency angioplasty for people having heart attacks.) Northern Westchester Hospital has an application on file with the state DOH to establish its first cardiac-catheterization lab. Saint Joseph’s Medical Center recently opened a freestanding cardiac-care facility in Yonkers, and Westchester Medical Center keeps adding to its extensive list of cardiac-care capabilities.
“The things we focus on are the advanced services,” explains Michael Israel, Westches- ter Medical Center Health Network president and CEO. “We used to be the only hospital that did cardiac cath. Then the technology improved, and it became widely available in many hospitals. Now, we do much more ad- vanced things, like TAVR,” he says, explain- ing that transcatheter aortic valve replace- ment at WMC is a new approach to replacing heart valves, one that vastly shortens a pa- tient’s recuperation time and hospital stay.
Westchester Medical Center, the largest hospital in the region, differentiates itself by focusing on industry-leading treatments and bringing its services to communities farther
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north, say hospital leaders. Its joint venture, announced last year, with Bon Secours Charity Health System, added community hospitals, several other medical facilities, and a net- work of more than 80 physicians to its fold. It also recently announced a new partnership with Kingston-based HealthAlliance that will further expand its reach in the Hudson Valley. Westchester Medical Center now has networks and affiliations in eight counties: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, and Delaware, as well as a $500 million, 15-year joint venture with Phillips which, among other benefits, en-
hances its telemedicine capabilities. This new eHealth Program allows ICU staff in Valhalla to monitor vital signs, note status changes and connect with patients and family members through in-room cameras in Poughkeepsie’s MidHudson Regional Hospital’s ICU. The program increases the hospital’s geographic reach and connects their specialists to people many miles away who wouldn’t otherwise have access to those doctors.
While Westchester Medical Center is cover- ing more ground outside the county, Bronx-based Montefiore Health System is asserting itself with- in county lines. Its acquisition of Mount Vernon
Northern Westchester Hospital recently completed a $36.6 million surgical suite
renovation; (below) Westchester Medical Center’s new eHealth program increases the hospital’s geographic reach.