Access to Medical Care in the Adirondacks

In early March, Aaron Beguelin wrote an interesting post on healthcare in the Adirondacks.  His blog post focuses on various public health concerns within the Adirondacks, as well as and the Adirondack Rural Health Network Organization.  Reading this piece sparked my interest in the healthcare resources that are available in the Adirondack region, leading me to share a few thoughts this week on available medical care in the Adirondacks.

The Adirondacks, being as remote as they are, present complications for urgent medical situations, along with accessibility to primary care.  The Lake Placid area, for example, is four and a half hours from the New York City hospitals such as New York Presbyterian Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital.  The Adirondack region is equally far from the University of Rochester Medical Center, and about an hour closer to SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse.  It would take less time for an Adirondack resident to drive to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont, or the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, than it would take to travel to a New York City hospital for an appointment.

However, people generally do not want to drive three to five hours to see their primary care physician or dermatologist, nor do they have time to travel the aforementioned distances in the case of an emergency.  For years, as the Adirondacks’ popularity continued to grow, the park’ remoteness presented an issue for those needing medical care.  For the second half of the twentieth century, the park’s medical care was primarily provided by five hospitals, most of which were undergoing economic challenges.  (Jenkins, 164)

Today’s Adirondack health system is significantly improved with the updated Adirondack Medical Center.  The Adirondack Medical Center’s main hospital in Saranac Lake has 271 beds, which is quite large for a region such as the Adirondacks.  The Saranac Lake campus’s Emergency Room serves approximately 15000 patients in a year, and the OR performed approximately 3000 procedures (US News and World Report).

Although today’s access to medical care in the Adirondacks is not in any way equivalent to living in the vicinity of a major medical center, it has come a long way in recent years.  Promoting health care in the Adirondacks is good not only for those living in and visiting the area who require medical care, but also for the region’s economy, in that hospitals and clinics provide jobs, while promoting tourism by bringing doctors, nurses, and their families into the park.

Sources:

1. Jenkins, Jerry, and Andy Keal. The Adirondack Atlas: A Geographic Portrait of the Adirondack Park. 1st ed. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UP, 2004. Print.
2. US News and World Report. "Adirondack Medical Center." US News:Best Hospitals. U.S.News & World Report, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <http://health.usnews.com/best-hospitals/area/ny/adirondack-medical-center-6210007>.