SLINGERLANDS – Health care is moving around in the Capital Region. In the last five years, Community Care Physicians has closed its Delmar urgent care office, beginning in February 2024 CDPHP and Community Care will start consolidating their physical operations to a new location in Latham and effective September 13, an internal medicine practice group that is part of St. Peter’s Health Partners Medical Associates, will close its Slingerlands office at 1240 New Scotland Road affecting over 4,500 patients.
According to an August 1 patient letter from SPHPMA Practice Administrator Kelley Williams, patients’ care will be transferred automatically to Capital Region Family Health Care at 2 Empire Drive in East Greenbush, unless they opt for care outside of SPHPMA. The office’s two doctors and its family nurse practitioner will also transfer to the new location, but the physician assistant will not.
No reason was given in the letter for the closing. However, when asked why the New Scotland Road location was closing, Robert Webster, Manager of Public Relations & Digital Communications, Corporate Communications for St. Peter’s Health Partners stated that SPHPMA “is regularly looking to create efficiencies throughout our system of care, without compromising patient access or quality of care.” He further explained, “As part of this effort, we work to identify opportunities where we can provide access to primary care providers who are also located near specialty offices and ancillary services. This increases the ability of our patients to engage with multiple health care services in a single location with ease.”
During normal traffic, the relocation will add 15-25 minutes for Town of Bethlehem residents to get to the new location from the New Scotland Road office. Webster said that the practice’s relocation of its three providers to the other SPHPMA site is “not expected to negatively impact patients’ access, as those providers will still be available to their existing patients.”
Although Webster said that it has been a mostly positive response from patients, individuals interviewed for this article about the re-location were split about the change, with younger patients seeming less concerned about the move.
“I didn’t inquire about a closer practice because I am comfortable with the doctor I see, so I decided to stay even though it means going a little further, said Glenmont resident Christina Shroud, 49.
Patient Kim Matura, 54, concurred. “The practice has been in about three different locations over the last 10 years. I will go wherever the doctor is because she’s a rock star.”
“It’s just business. It’s just the way it goes so I will go to the new office in Rensselaer,” Joshua Blow, 51 a City of Albany resident said.
The practice’s website touts that it is “conveniently located” and “offers patients the chance to establish relationships with our entire health care team.”
Patients in their 60’s and older who were interviewed were upset by the move because of the additional distance to see their primary care doctor. Elizabeth Blaber, 77, a Delmar resident, said she was very disappointed to get the letter. Blaber may leave the practice because of the longer travel distance.
“As I get older, I don’t want to travel as far,” she said, “I want something more convenient.”
Blaber added she has spoken with two other practice patients who are very upset about the practice’s move to East Greenbush.
“One person’s husband is 88 and they live in Delmar and she is deciding what to do because of the distance.” She said the other patient, like herself, is in her 70s, and is not a good driver and likes to stay close to home.
Both the August 1 letter and Webster indicated that patients could seek services from an SPHPMA primary care practice that is geographically closer if the East Greenbush location is not convenient. According to Webster, five SPHPMA primary care sites are located within five miles of the 1240 New Scotland Road location, including 1444 Western Avenue and 400 Patroon Creek.
However, at least one patient reported when he called, he was told that those practices are not accepting new patients.
“I called them and they were clear that there is no choice,” he stated. “Neither office is in a position to take patients from Bethlehem.”
Another patient said he was accepted for care at the SPHPMA Western Avenue office and would move there because it is closer to his Delmar home. At the same time, he expressed “great sadness” at having to give up his long term doctor.
“I was heartbroken because I have seen this doctor for about 15 years since the practice was on Delaware Avenue”, said Homi Mistry, 70. “I have to start with a new doctor and that is unfortunate because this doctor knows my medical history.”
One patient in his 60s voiced the same concern. “The PA I dealt with is not moving to the new office so I have to start all over with building the relationship and familiarity with my case.”
The picture of the general practitioner toting their medical bag that over years learns their patient’s history and monitors the patient for new ailments is part of the American psyche. Today, however, only a fraction of all doctors in the U.S. are primary care doctors and most of them do not work for practices they own or even for other physicians, but are employed by private equity investors or other corporate entities driven by economics.
If the SPHPMA patients opt to leave its network, the prime beneficiary of the Slingerlands office closing may be Community Care Physicians, a rival primary care practice located on Delaware Avenue in Delmar.
“We don’t have any primary care practices closing and no changes in Delmar occurring,” reported Alexis Musto, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications and Strategy for Community Care Physicians.
However, while Community Care has no plans to close its Delmar primary care practice, it already closed its urgent care facility located in Delmar.
Musto said the Delmar urgent care was closed “because of the proliferation of urgent cares in the area and expanded access in our offices, so there was less of a demand for this service.” She added, “we currently have one urgent care in Latham.”
Town residents seeking urgent care locally can go to either Medrite Delmar Urgent Care on Delaware Avenue or Albany Med EmUrgent Care site on Glenmont Road in Glenmont.
Community Care and CDPHP moving in together in brand new space
While not moving its Delmar Delaware Avenue primary care office, Community Care will move all of its Latham offices, currently located at the Capital Region Health Park at 711-713 Troy Schenectady Road to a new $90 million 260,000 square foot facility that it will share about 85,000 square feet with CDPHP. The building will house CDPHP’s corporate headquarters that will move from Washington Avenue. Combined, CDPHP and Community Care will leave behind about 210,000 square feet of space currently used for administrative and clinical services.The facility is being built at a new location two miles away from the current Capital Region Health Park on Autopark Drive off of Route 9 and which has been renamed Wellness Way. The Latham urgent care will move with it.
Musto stated Community Care currently expects to open offices on the ground floor of the new building and will move in in phases beginning in February 2024 and the move completed by April 2024.
“Luckily, Wellness Way is only about two miles away [from the Latham offices] so the location will still be convenient for patients and our teams”, said Musto.
Across the United States, a shortage of primary health care practitioners is growing.
Primary care doctor shortages delay access to primary care, a critical component of improving health and reducing overall health costs. Additional strain gets placed on hospital emergency rooms when primary care doctors are not available. “What happens in the middle of January when the snow is falling?” posed one practice patient. “My option will be to go to urgent care or the emergency room or to go see a doctor in East Greenbush.” He suggested that East Greenbush will not be his choice.
“Leaving a family doctor is like leaving your spouse,” one Slingerland’s patient said.
This story appeared on page 1 of the September 6, 2023 print edition of the Spotlight
