Saratoga Hospital and local officials celebrated the opening of a two-story medical center in Milton.
What had long been a single primary care practice in Milton, the Milton Health Center has now expanded into the second floor — allowing neurology, therapy, and laboratory services to be offered under one roof.
Saratoga Hospital CEO and President Jill VanKuren said the expansion was necessary.
“The beauty of this practice is that it outgrew itself. So, we were downstairs on the first floor with our primary care practice and they were so robust, they were one of our more robust locations so we needed to expand and we were able to take over the second floor, move that practice upstairs give it more room to grow and then with neurology it is a much-needed practice in this community not just in the town but in the county and beyond,” said VanKuren.
Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus says the benefits of the expanded center go beyond better access to care.
“I mean the economic impact particularly In the town of Milton is significant. How many people are here, maybe 40, 50 right now, who work here in this facility? So, where you work is often where you spend money, so that’s going to drive more money into the economy. And as you mentioned, people from all over, whether it’s Saratoga Springs or Malta, or Clifton Park, or Vermont are going to be coming here for the specialized services that they offer so, again, when people travel, they tend to shop and dine-out,” said Shimkus.
VanKuren says bringing more services under one roof is a regional focus for the hospital system, particularly with an increase in older patients, including an incoming “center for successful aging” in Saratoga Springs.
“Successful aging means different things to different people but I think the commonality is that we have agency over our aging process. So, we age the way that we want to and we consume those services in a more collaborative way and a way that is more easy to access. So, consider how great it would be to have more than one appointment on one day and not to build your entire schedule around your doctor’s appointments. I think that resonates with so many people and our center for successful aging will make that happen. So, having our primary care access points out into the community and have some of those specialists be co-located, that’s the way of the future,” said VanKuren.
The second floor features a state-of-the-art care facility for the practice that sees around 5,000 patients a year.
Medical Director Susan Muller says the upgrades are much appreciated.
“I had been pushing the hospital to develop it for a long time. We needed to expand. We didn’t have enough room to meet the patient needs. So, they finally listened to me tow years ago and finally moved on it. It’s great to have neurology downstairs – the community is aging, it’s really convenient for the patients that like right around us. The lab is still on the first floor as well so they can get their labs drawn. We’re super happy being up here, we can breathe, we can take more patients, we have more providers,” said Muller.
Mitlon Supervisor Scott Ostrander says the expansion matches the growth of the town.
“Obviuiously it’s a win-win for us. You’ve got a brand new facility which is state-of-the-art and you’ve got top-notch people. And then of course that brings jobs to the building which in turn gets people to spend money in our town so the tax revenue is going to come. So, yeah it’s a win-win for us. The town is expanding on all ends. We’ve got a new airport coming in, we’ve got a town hall expansion coming in, we’ve got new highway garage coming in, we’ve got a new park coming in,” said Ostrander.
Dr. Muller says the practice is expecting to bring a social worker on board in the near future.
