UPDATE: Officials hope merged hospitals will benefit patients

PHOTOGRAPHER: Justin Mason

Hospital officials believe the long-awaited merger between three regional health care organizations will create a network that will help streamline and revolutionize the process through which patients receive services.

Northeast Health, St. Peter’s Health Service, and Seton Health began operating Saturday under the umbrella organization St. Peter’s Health Partners. Executives with the new organization are calling it the largest hospital consortium of the Capital Region and boasting that it will create the most comprehensive not-for-profit network of health care services.

St. Peter’s will have an annual budget of roughly $1.1 billion, encompass about 125 different locations across the Capital Region and include more than 11,700 workers, making it the region’s largest private employer. But while the new organization began doing business this month, full integration of the three systems may take up to three years to complete.

The merger is the culmination of four years of discussions between the three organizations. Steven Boyle, chief executive officer of the newly formed organization, said the process extended longer than anticipated, but allowed planners to fully explore the benefits in cost-effectiveness and accessibility provided by the merger.

St. Peter’s Health Service will now serve as an umbrella organization for Albany Memorial and St. Peter’s hospitals in the city, as well as St. Mary’s and Samaritan hospitals in Troy and Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital in Schenectady.

The merger will create a new model called an accountable care organization, which will serve as an umbrella for nearly any service a patient may need. The system will create bundled payments for patients, meaning they can receive a cost estimate for a procedure that will take them from referral through rehabilitation.