Columbia Memorial Health tells Hudson council it has applied for critical access status, plans psychiatric and surgical expansions

Columbia Memorial Health executives told the Hudson Common Council that the health system has submitted an application to reclassify its hospital as a critical access facility and is pursuing multiple projects intended to stabilize finances and expand services.

"We just had a town hall and as you know, we presented to you a few months ago prior to Christmas holidays," Dorothy Marshall, CEO of Columbia Memorial Health, said in an update. She said the system has an approved grant and $5,000,000 has been released to convert a vacant unit into a 12-bed general psychiatry unit, but the New York State Department of Health must approve a closure plan before those beds can come online. "So really today, as of today, we're waiting for the Department of Health to approve the closure plan," Marshall said.

Marshall described the hospital's three-pronged strategy: expand inpatient behavioral health capacity; build an ambulatory surgical and enhanced cardiac center at the Green Medical Arts site; and "right-size" the main campus, including pursuing critical access hospital status. She said the surgery center will include four operating rooms and two procedure rooms and is expected to serve specialties from ophthalmology to orthopedics, with a target completion date in January 2027. Marshall said the Green Medical Arts expansion is supported by a $5 million grant and $20 million from Albany Medical Center to fund and coordinate project management.

Brian Schuchat, who outlined financial trends for CMH, told the council the hospital saw a roughly 20% drop in inpatient census early in the pandemic and later faced rising expenses from agency staffing and other costs. "We had a year of negative $22,000,000 deficit," Schuchat said, and added that government relief in 2021–23 helped but that executing the current strategy is necessary for long-term sustainability.

Council members asked whether Hudson would lose services under the plan; Marshall responded directly: "We're not losing any services in Hudson, sir," and emphasized that core services would continue while the hospital alters its licensed bed count (from the current 50 to a proposed 25 under critical-access reclassification). She said CMH currently has about 100 vacancies and expects to add roughly 30 positions at the main campus and about 42 positions at Green Medical Arts, and described ongoing recruitment and retention efforts.

The council did not take a vote on any CMH proposal during the informal meeting. Marshall said CMH will hold another town hall in Greene County in April and encouraged residents to attend upcoming forums for more details.

Next step: the hospital's reclassification depends on state approval of the closure plan and, separately, the council and public can expect further public outreach from CMH as the projects develop.