SARANAC LAKE – Adirondack Health’s new president and CEO says she didn’t come here by accident.

Sylvia Getman touted her experience working in rural health care, her desire to live in a small town and her love of the outdoors during her first sit-down with the area’s news media Wednesday at Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.

She also praised the woman she’s replaced, Chandler Ralph, who retired last week after 21 years leading the Tri-Lakes area’s network of hospitals, health care clinics and nursing homes.

“A very high standard has been set for this organization, and I think people rise to meet a high standard,” she said. “I welcome the thought that I have that bar to meet.”

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Rural health care

Following a nationwide search, Adirondack Health’s Board of Trustees hired Getman in April. She’s the former president and CEO of Aroostook Medical Center in Presque Isle, Maine. Before that, she led Nantucket Cottage Hospital in Massachusetts and was CEO of a rural hospital in northern Iowa.

“It was that mix of rural and resort community experience, also the experience across the entire continuum of care, from physician practices to hospitals to nursing homes to home care,” that led to the decision to hire Getman, said Jeannie Cross, chair of Adirondack Health’s board. “She has that breadth and depth of knowledge, working in a system that’s similar to Adirondack Health.”

Getman described Adirondack Health as a “great organization with a lot of opportunity.” She said she was very impressed with its medical staff and believes rural communities like Saranac Lake are at the forefront of good health care, not medical outposts in the wilderness.

“I love rural health care,” Getman said. “I love that you can know the patient’s name. I love that our providers can wrap care differently, because your environment matters when it comes to your health care. To work with providers who understand that environment makes an absolute difference when it comes to your care. I believe we can lead the rest of the nation from rural health care, and I think Adirondack Health has already proven that.”

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Transition

Getman takes over at a busy time for Adirondack Health. The organization is planning to break ground on two new facilities, at a cost of $33 million, this year: a new medical health and fitness center in Lake Placid, on the Uihlein nursing home campus, that will house all the facilities at AMC-Lake Placid, and a new surgical services wing at AMC-Saranac Lake. It’s also in the process of selling Uihlein to Post Acute Partners, a Buffalo-based nursing home company.

Getman credited Adirondack Health’s vision in pushing these projects forward.

“I think they’re very smart and necessary projects,” she said. “I think they’re going to be very exciting for the organization and the community. Would I tweak here and there? Certainly I will be asking a lot of questions and I have a long list of continued due diligence around some of the nuances and impacts potentially of those projects.

“I’m going to be the beneficiary of helping drive good ideas forward. I have some of my own (ideas), by the way, but I’m only a week in, so we’ll hold on.”

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Trends, issues

Getman takes over an organization that’s struggled, like many other rural health care networks, to find new doctors. Although she’s only been on the job for a short time, Getman said she thinks Adirondack Health is “reasonably positioned.

“That doesn’t mean there aren’t some specific needs for primary care, for additional specialties,” she said. “We have a full-time recruiter here, and I’ve heard the recruiting reports. I know there’s about 11 different specialties under recruitment currently. It obviously is an issue.”

Getman said the organization needs to focus its recruiting on its reputation for quality, and its setting and environment. At the same time, she said she doesn’t think Adirondack Health will ever get away from using locum tenens, or physicians who fill in on a temporary basis.

Many other rural hospitals in the area recently formed partnerships with larger hospitals and health care groups, but Adirondack Health has remained independent.

Getman acknowledged health care is in a merger and acquisition “frenzy” nationally. She said she’s interested in Adirondack Health collaborating with other partners in the region if it will improve patient care. Going forward, she thinks the hospital will take a cautious approach to offering services that people now have to drive to hospitals in Plattsburgh and Burlington to get.

“You don’t want to put resources in that are too expensive and add to the overall cost of health care,” she said. “That’s not effective for a health care system. I think we’ll continue to look at that, but the bottom line I’ve been given is to look at the patient first on those services.”

Although Adirondack Health is transitioning out of managing the Uihlein nursing home, Getman said care of seniors “will always be part of our mission.” In the short term, there are no plans to do things differently at the Mercy nursing home in Tupper Lake, she said.

Getman also said she wants Adirondack Health to focus more on behavioral health and substance abuse issues, either on its own or with other partners. She also said the organization, the biggest private employer in the Adirondack Park, must continue to be an economic engine in the region.

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Personal

Getman said she and her husband Bill have already bought a home in Saranac Lake. They have three grown sons: one in New York City and two living in Boston.

The Getmans have traveled to upstate New York often over the years as Bill Getman is from the Syracuse area. Sylvia Getman said she moved around a lot growing up, as her father was in the Army. Her mother is from Italy.

“I was born in Monterey, California. I have lived in New Jersey. I spent about half of my years growing up in Europe,” she said. “When people ask me where I’m from, I’m now from Saranac Lake. I consider it my home.”

The prospect of exploring the Adirondacks also brought her and her husband here. Getman said they love to hike and downhill ski. Her husband was the volunteer general manager of Bigrock Ski Area, a small nonprofit ski hill in Mars Hill, Maine.

“This is really as much about career and place as it is about family for us,” she said.

Adirondack Health is planning a series of public forums in the coming weeks to introduce Getman to people in the area.