Two more hospitals join Rochester Regional Health; CEO search continues

United Memorial Medical Center, Batavia, N.Y., and Clifton Springs (N.Y.) Hospital & Clinic will join newly formed Rochester (N.Y.) Regional Health System by the end of this year, according to a formal binding agreement unanimously approved by each organization's board last month.

With the addition of United Memorial and Clifton Springs, Rochester Regional will become a five-hospital system serving a 14-county region in upstate New York, pending approval from state and federal regulators.

Collaboration with Rochester General, a founding partner in Rochester Regional, is not new for United Memorial and Clifton Springs, which have both previously held clinical affiliations with the hospital.

“This is the logical progression of a longstanding relationship between United Memorial and Rochester General, which has enhanced our hospital services and benefited our community,” said United Memorial CEO Mark Schoell.

“As healthcare reform continues to cause the most sweeping changes to the hospital industry in more than a century, rural hospitals in particular are struggling throughout the U.S.,” said Mark Clement, co-CEO of Rochester Regional Health System.

Rochester Regional was formed when Rochester General Health System and Unity Health System, Rochester, N.Y., joined forces in a July 1 merger after more than a year of planning and regulatory review. Rochester Regional is the parent of the new system, for which no major changes in care were to be expected, management announced at the time.

A search for a new permanent CEO to lead the newly integrated system is underway and expected to be finished by the end of 2014, when the two hospitals officially join the system.

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