Local leaders, the big picture

When Dr. Thomas Dennison of Syracuse University spoke to an audience of more than three dozen from the Central New York Region at the Annual Meeting of the Cayuga Community Health Network last week at the Sunset Restaurant, he ended his discussion on how local hospitals, such as Auburn Memorial, can survive in a world of changing demographics and how they can become stronger.

According to Dr. Dennison, “form follows financing in health care.” That is something that is vital for local leaders who are concerned about the financial viability of AMH to remember, especially when looking at demographic trends that face our community. Cayuga County's population is bubbling upwards in age. The end result will be a change in the types of health care problems the community will see and the need to shift resources. There will be a lot of work for health care providers that Dr. Dennison jokingly referred to as part of “Aging Inc.”

For example, according to Dr. Dennison, we will see a major shift in health care problems, especially with increases in cardio-vascular diseases, diabetes, mobility impairments, muscular and skeletal problems and obesity. The end result will be not only a higher need for services and specialties to deal with these chronic (and often preventable) diseases, but a dramatic rise in costs. The bad news, according to Dr. Dennison, is that we will see “more public payers.” For those who need a translation - that is taxpayer funded programs such as Medicare.