The last month of 2024 has proven extremely consequential for Kingston-centered HealthAlliance Hospital. Three major announcements were made.
The state attorney general fined the hospital $1.4 million — suspending $850,000 of it because of the hospital’s financial condition — for not taking stronger measures to avoid a cyberattack that compromised the information of more than 240,000 current and former patients and employees.
The directors of the Kingston hospital’s parent company announced on December 11 that it had hired David Lubarsky, MD, MBA, FASA, as the new president and CEO of Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth), to succeed longtime CEO Michael Israel.
On December 16, it was announced that the inpatient behavioral health unit at HealthAlliance Hospital, closed during the pandemic, had been rebuilt and is now reopened as part of a broader strategy to expand behavioral health services in the system as a whole.
The data breach settled
“HealthAlliance provides essential healthcare services to New Yorkers, but it also has a responsibility to protect private medical information as part of its patient care,” said attorney general Letitia James in her statement. “No one should have to worry that when they seek medical care, they are putting their private information in the hands of scammers and hackers.”
The stolen data included names, addresses, Social Security numbers, health insurance information and sensitive medical data like lab reports and treatment records.
The settlement requires the company to enact new cyber-security protocols, including an edict to shut down impacted systems if a known vulnerability cannot be patched in 72 hours, plus appropriate encryption of all sensitive data and additional resources dedicated to monitoring and restricting network activity.
An outside vendor who provided web applications for the company sent out a cyber-alert warning about the weakness, urging clients to fix it. A patch to secure the system failed because of technical issues. Instead of taking the system offline, they continued to operate it while attempting a fix. The cyber-attack escalated by October 2023 to the point where the hospital was forced to cease operations for four days.
In addition to the financial penalty, the settlement requires the company to enact new cyber-security protocols.
A proferred $1.29-million WMC settlement in a class-action federal lawsuit on behalf of those impacted by the data breach has offered patients whose data was stolen a flat payment of $100, three years of credit and medical monitoring, and compensation of up to $7500 for victims who could document lost wages or other expenses incurred.
WMC is glad to have the matter put behind it — if it has indeed done so.
A spokesman for the parent company emailed a statement to Kingston Wire, whose reporter Jesse Smith has done excellent work on the subject: “While we neither admit nor deny the findings of the investigation, we are pleased to have resolved this matter so we can continue to focus on providing healthcare services to all who need them.”
New WMCHealth CEO hired
After a nationwide search, David Lubarsky, vice-chancellor of human health sciences at UC Davis Health, an organization with a $5-billion annual budget, will become president and CEO of WMCHealth on February 17. Dr. Lubarsky, who succeeds long-serving WMC CEO, is a graduate of Edgemont High School in Scarsdale. He started his medical career with an internship at Westchester Medical Center.
A professor of anesthesiology and a professor of nursing, Lubarsky is also a faculty member in the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis. He received his MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, graduating as valedictorian of his class.
During his tenure at UC Davis Health, according to a press release. Dr. Lubarsky prioritized several community-based initiatives to improve access and patient care for residents across the region. These efforts included expanding care for the underserved, Medi-Cal patients, people experiencing homelessness, and others with limited resources, while creating a sustainable financial model.
Dr. Lubarsky expressed an extremely positive outlook about his new employer. “Patients are at the heart of everything we do, and I am inspired by WMCHealth’s unwavering commitment to providing exceptional care to every individual who walks through its doors,” said Lubarsky. “This organization’s dedication to innovation, its comprehensive network of services, and its mission to serve diverse communities make this an incredible opportunity. I greatly look forward to the road ahead, and I’m excited to work alongside the network’s clinical and executive leadership to shape the future of healthcare in the region.”
Behavioral care restored
The 20-bed behavioral health unit at HealthAlliance Hospital reopened on December 16, marking the first phase of WMCHealth broader strategy to expand behavioral health services, including inpatient care, emergency treatment, and outpatient addiction programs.
The $7-million, 20,000 square-foot Kingston project includes a mix of renovated semi-private and private patient rooms with upgraded bathrooms, improved dining and group program spaces, a quiet room with audio-visual entertainment, a new nursing station, and other improved staff work areas and support spaces.
WMC veteran administrator Michael Doyle, MD, MBA, CPE, a licensed psychiatrist with more than three decades of healthcare experience, will serve as the regional associate medical director of psychiatry for WMCHealth.
“The new inpatient behavioral health unit at HealthAlliance Hospital is designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s behavioral health patients,” said Dr. Doyle. “With modernized facilities and advanced treatment spaces, these renovations enhance our ability to offer a safe, therapeutic environment that supports the recovery and well-being of our patients.”
New York State mental-health commissioner Dr. Ann Sullivan lauded the change, saying that psychiatric beds at community-based hospitals played a crucial role in provide New Yorkers with care following a behavioral-health crisis. “HealthAlliance Hospital’s restored behavioral health wing will bring welcome inpatient capacity to the City of Kingston and Ulster County,” she said.
“A lack of mental-health services has immensely harmed our society, especially those who need treatment and their families,” added state assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha: “A lack of mental-health services has immensely harmed our society, especially those who need treatment and their families. When someone is in need of a psychiatric bed at a hospital and they can’t access it, that person is likely to end up hurt or in jail, and that makes all of us less safe.”
Other political leaders chimed in with similar messages of support.
WMCHealth has also hired two new experienced physicians, Rebecca Ackerman-Raphael and Lore Garten, to lead behavioral-health clinical efforts.
WMCHealth also said that it expects construction to begin at MidHudson Regional Hospital in Poughkeepsie in 2025. Once completed, there will be 60 inpatient behavioral-health beds available there. Including the HealthAlliance Hospital’s 20 beds, 80 such beds will then be available at WMCHealth facilities across Ulster and Dutchess counties.
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