CEO Insider – Fall 2025 Newsletter

NEW SERIES – CEO INSIDER

In this final installment of our popular CEO Insider Series, we are highlighting CEOs from each of the five Regions that make up our membership (i.e., Capital District, North Country, Mohawk Valley, Southern Tier, and Central New York). Our CEOs share their insights, challenges, and vision – Enjoy!

This newsletter, we introduce you to our CEOs:

• Cecil M. Miller, III, President and Chief Executive Officer, UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital
• Dr. David Lubarsky, President & Chief Executive Officer, WMCHealth on behalf of Margaretville Hospital
• Staci Thompson, MHA, FACMPE, President and CEO, Bassett Healthcare Network
• Dorothy Urschel, DNP ACNP-BC FNP-BC MBA, Columbia Memorial Health
• Dr. Robert J. Corona,  DO, MBA, Upstate University Hospital

Cecil M. Miller, III, President and Chief Executive Officer, UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital

1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on for the remainder of 2025 and beyond? 

As the only hospital in Chenango County, the most important issue is continuing to provide high quality care and improving access to care for the patients we serve.

2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?

I look for leaders who share and commit to our values of Compassion, Trust, Respect, Teamwork, and Innovation.  Second, leaders who can engage staff and build their own diverse teams.  And last, and no less important, leaders who are 100% dedicated to this hospital and our community.

3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States?

I spent 30 years in Western New York and the last 10 as part of a large academic system.  The biggest difference I see is the community engagement and the pride the community has with the hospital.  There is a real feeling of being part of a family.

4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?

The issues facing rural communities in NY are unique.  Whether it’s lack of transportation, access to specialty care, behavioral health needs or the host of other issues that plague our rural communities.  It is vital to build a network with every agency across communities and to tear down the silos that often exist.

5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization? 

CMH has built a strong financial base that has allowed for investment in the facility and its infrastructure.  I want to continue to build on that success and further integrate with UHS, taking advantage of being part of a strong system.

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare? 

Access to specialty care without traveling a long distance and recruiting and retaining providers.

7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?

Mental Health and Addiction Medicine.

Dr. David Lubarsky, President & Chief Executive Officer, WMCHealth on behalf of Margaretville Hospital 

1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on for the remainder of 2025 and beyond?

Our focus is on transformation and sustainability — ensuring that the safety net of care across the Hudson Valley remains strong, coordinated, and equitable. Through the State’s Safety Net Transformation Grant, we’re investing in system integration, information systems modernization, and workforce stability so that care is seamless for our patients and sustainable for our providers. Beyond that, we’re focused on improving access to behavioral health and primary care, expanding digital connectivity, and ensuring every patient — from the most rural to the most urban — experiences one standard of excellence across our network.

2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?

First, strategic clarity — leaders who can connect day-to-day decisions to long-term goals. Second, collaborative resilience — people who lean into challenges, not away from them, and bring others along in problem-solving. And third, values-driven leadership — compassion, integrity, and a commitment to mission must guide every decision, especially in safety-net healthcare where our work often defines whether a community thrives.

3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural New York the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other states?

The fundamentals are the same — quality, safety, patient experience — but the context is dramatically different. In rural and upstate New York, we serve communities where hospitals are often the largest employer, the anchor institution, and the only access point for essential care. The economics are tougher, the workforce is thinner, and the infrastructure is older. But the mission feels even more personal — because when we succeed, an entire region benefits.

4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?

Partnerships have to be rooted in shared accountability and a common purpose. We can’t afford transactional relationships in a system this complex. Whether it’s a behavioral health provider, EMS agency, or food access organization, the goal is the same: to improve outcomes by addressing the full continuum of health. Transparency, trust, and shared data are the cornerstones of any successful collaboration.

5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and future goals for your organization?

I’m proud of how our teams have embraced the challenge of transformation. Despite financial headwinds and post-pandemic strain, WMCHealth has stabilized, modernized, and positioned itself for long-term sustainability. Securing the Safety Net Transformation Grant is a milestone, but the real achievement lies in the collaboration and resilience that made it possible. Looking ahead, our goal is to become the most integrated, patient-centered safety-net system in New York State — where care is data-driven, equitable, and accessible for every community we serve.

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?

The greatest challenge is structural underfunding — the payment models simply don’t reflect the realities of providing care in rural and safety-net environments. Add to that the workforce crisis, the aging infrastructure, and rising behavioral health needs, and you have a perfect storm. But there’s also a tremendous opportunity: if we align policy, technology, and community partnerships, we can rebuild the safety net for the next generation.

7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?

I’d invest deeply in behavioral health integration, primary care expansion, and digital connectivity. We need to meet patients where they are – physically and virtually –  and close the gaps between medical care, mental health, and social support. I’d also expand workforce pipelines and housing supports for healthcare professionals; because if we can stabilize those who deliver care, we can transform the health of those who receive it.

 

Staci Thompson, MHA, FACMPE, President and CEO, Bassett Healthcare Network

1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on for the remainder of 2025 and beyond?

Our day-to-day focus across Bassett Healthcare Network is to provide the highest-quality care to our patients and residents. To do this, we are consistently analyzing our operations and equipment to determine opportunities for improvement and expansion. We are currently upgrading CT scanners at hospitals across our network (with the most recent installation happening at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown) and expanding the Bassett Cancer Institute at FoxCare Center in Oneonta with new equipment, additional exam rooms, an increased number of infusion bays, and other upgrades for patient and clinical staff comfort and convenience.

One of our organization’s top priorities is recruiting physicians, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, other clinical professionals, and the many other roles needed so our network can provide the access our patients and communities deserve. Also, importantly, we continue to emphasize retaining the caregivers and staff we currently employ. We want Bassett Healthcare Network to be a place where quality employees at all levels can build long-term, satisfying careers.

2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?

We are truly fortunate to have a great team of executive leaders at Bassett Healthcare Network. Traits they share include expertise in their specific fields, a collaborative spirit focused on teamwork and problem-solving, and a dedication to our mission as a non-profit, independent healthcare organization.

Our executive team works best when a variety of perspectives and experiences come together, so that the best decisions can be reached.

3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States?

Rural healthcare comes with unique challenges, but also unique opportunities. Demographically, our patients are largely from a lower socioeconomic class, with many relying on Medicaid or Medicare. This can create funding challenges. We are consistently analyzing our business practices to ensure we are positioning ourselves for the future.

Our network covers a 5,600 square mile region, so transportation can also be difficult, both for patients traveling to their appointments and for inter-facility transfers. Earlier this year, we formalized a partnership with Otsego County EMS for streamlined transfers, which has already proven advantageous. This kind of collaboration with community organizations is vital for all healthcare organizations, but especially for those operating in rural regions.

4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?

Our network deeply appreciates the partnerships we have forged with community organizations that have like-minded values and goals that align with ours. It’s important that we form mutually beneficial bonds, for the good of our patients and community members. As an example, the Bassett Cancer Institute partners with the Cooperstown Food Pantry to provide medically-tailored food to cancer patients in need.

We are also committed, through the Bassett Research Institute, to doing our part to advance medical science through studies and clinical trial. The research institute regularly collaborates with hospitals and healthcare organizations across the country towards this goal.

5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization?

I’ve been President and CEO of Bassett Healthcare Network for almost two years now. In that time, I am proud of the progress that has been made to unify our network’s five hospitals, numerous health centers, and skilled nursing facilities, and other health partners proudly under one banner, towards the same mission.

I am also extremely proud of the way our teams have stepped up and helped streamline the organization creating a much more stable operating platform.  We are committed to caring for our communities now and long into the future, so operational sustainability has been a key area of focus.

Our practitioners and caregivers offer access to care for our patients across this broad geography and we are committed to improving access through the addition of new practitioners and services.

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?

Many patients in Upstate New York face unique social determinants – including food deserts, transportation issues, lack of insurance coverage, lack of broadband access, low socioeconomic status, and more. Additionally, the population our network serves is older and sicker. More than 70 percent of patients who entrust Bassett Healthcare Network with their care use Medicare or Medicaid. As industry and population trends at the national, regional, and local levels continue to intersect, Bassett’s leaders, clinicians, researchers, and other experts are focused on positioning our health system for a successful future.

7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?

I would prioritize access to primary care, dental care and mental health care for all of patients that depend upon us.  It is so important that care start with these services as a strong foundation of our integrated delivery network.

Dorothy Urschel, DNP ACNP-BC FNP-BC MBA, Columbia Memorial Health

1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on for the remainder of 2025 and beyond? 

The most critical issues for the future of our rural hospital include financial stability, workforce shortages-recruiting new employees, reducing the number of traveling nurses, technicians, and locum physicians. We are adapting to changing care delivery models and addressing threats to rural healthcare sustainability; including the realization that the inpatient care delivery system is unsustainable for a rural community hospital with decreasing volumes.

As a strategic imperative we are advancing ambulatory surgical care in the counties we serve as well as expanding mental health beds, specifically geropsychiatry. Our focus continues to include increasing access to care, especially primary care; increasing surgical and endoscopic programs and achieving a positive financial margin.

2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?

We look for a hospital executive team with the ability and willingness to work in a team-based setting, competence, flexibility as well as willingness to take on challenges– who are empathic leaders who respect colleagues, employees, and the patients we serve.

3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other States?

• Challenges for rural hospitals (differences in degree) – Leading a rural community hospital in NY faces significant challenges including severe financial struggles due to low patient volume and uncompensated care, a health care professional shortage area for qualified staff, and aging infrastructure that makes modernizing difficult and costly.
• Great dependence on government payers- over 89% of our inpatient revenue is from Medicare and Medicaid
• Managing patients with a focus on social determinants of health is top of mind.
• Difficulty in recruiting staff of all types – Young people want to work in or close to large cities
• Limited population base to support medical specialties

4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?

• Community needs- with a focus on our community service plan
• Expanding access to care
• Willingness of potential partners to work as partners—community alliances in rural health care can be
• Human capital needs- adequate supply of people to do the work
• Fundraising issues- complement rather than compete

5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and or future goals for your organization? 

Achievements

• Improving the quality of care of the Hospital and its medical practices provided
• Integrating with the Albany Medical Health System
• Increasing women’s health services and access to them
• Developing a strategic plan as we transform our rural healthcare services in Columbia and Greene counties
• Awarded several grants from NYS to aid hospital transformation

Future Goals

• Developing a financially sustainable model while preserving existing care and services
• Successfully operationalizing an ASC
• Maintaining a large primary care footprint in the region
• Developing a self-sustaining workforce
• Continuing to improve patient experience scores and other quality measures
• Increasing access to care for the members of the communities we serve

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare? 

• Aging of the population and the employee healthcare base
• Dependence on government payers
• Limited access to capital
• Social Determinants of health for the underserved, uninsured, underinsured

7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community? 

• Outreach to at-risk members of the community; including improving the transportation system to increase access
• Nutritional support to those in need
• Comprehensive care for every child and the elderly
• More individualized and comprehensive care management programs and staff
• Providing resources to care for people in their homes rather than in long-term care facilities
• Increasing access to primary care

Robert J. Corona, DO, MBA, Chief Executive Officer, Upstate University Hospital

1. What are the most important issues your organization is focusing on in 2025 and beyond?

Our biggest priority is to accelerate the development of the Upstate University Hospital project we call “the annex,” which will update our seriously small emergency department. Our physical footprint hasn’t changed in decades although our patient ED volumes have tripled, and we serve as the region’s Level I trauma center for both adults and pediatrics. This $450 million in funding is the largest capital allocation in the hospital’s history and it will help us address overcrowding in the ER with the addition of between 20 to 40 more bays, as well as an increase in ICU beds for our burn unit which serves a vast geographic footprint across NYS and into Vermont.

2. What are the top three traits you look for in building your executive team?
One of my mentors gave me great words to live by when evaluating my words and actions as an executive: Is it true? Is it kind? And I would add to that, is it innovative? So, in my own team I look for people who are not afraid to speak truth, who do so with awareness of others, and who look for ideas that will move us forward.

3. How is running a hospital in Upstate/Rural NY the same or different than elsewhere in NYS or in other states?
For its clinical services, Upstate serves a huge swath of New York State —about one-third of the state’s land mass. Amid that geography we have a large range of communities and every type of place that people can live, from urban apartments minutes from our doors to secluded homes in the high peaks. In addition to addressing distance and access for the people who need our services, we are often the only provider for certain specialties— Upstate has more than 60 unique services found nowhere else in our region. With this in mind, we truly have a bit of everything, set within the region’s only academic medical center.

4. When thinking about building partnerships in your community, whether with other health care providers or social care providers, what issues do you consider most important?
We have excellent relationships with other hospitals in the region, and it is our intention to nurture those. We’ve all come together for the Respect and Heal initiative to reduce workplace violence, and Upstate is proud to host its programming and annual summit. We also are developing a virtual health network to support load balancing and to keep care happening in the patient’s local hospital whenever possible. For example, our Upstate Telestroke program is in 13 hospitals. We have had hundreds of consultations that allowed stroke patients to be treated immediately in the regional hospital closest to their home.

5. As a leader in Upstate/Rural New York, what are your proudest achievements and/or future goals for your organization?

Continual innovation is one of our top achievements. We’ve been named a CHIME Digital Health “Most Wired” organization for years which means we’re ranking above peers in analytics and data management, population health, infrastructure and patient engagement. We have a drone courier program for lab and pharmacy that is being studied by other hospitals around the country. We have a robot program within our hospital to perform deliveries and other services which has saved hundreds of miles of steps for staff who can now apply that conserved energy to patient care. We have a new virtual nurse program to speed admissions and discharges, and an Operations Throughput Center to quickly get patients from the ED to the right bed across both our hospital campuses.

6. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing Upstate/Rural New York healthcare?
There are a lot of unmet needs. One of the most pressing is the mental health crisis for adults and particularly for children. We opened a unique service last year, the Biobehavioral Health Inpatient Unit, which is the first facility of its kind in New York state—and one of only a handful nationwide—that can treat children with both mental health needs and developmental disabilities. This summer, our Upstate Foundation concluded a special campaign for Child & Adolescent Mental Health, which raised $7.1 million for a variety of youth programs and services at Upstate to allow us to provide more of this care, with more initiatives to come.

7. If resources were plentiful, what services or programming would you prioritize in service to your patients and community?
Mental health services as mentioned above. Also continuing to break down barriers to care to help people receive services more conveniently or even where they are. As an employer, helping people find meaningful jobs in healthcare is another priority, and one that provides a win-win for everyone.