Hudson Headwaters CEO Tucker Slingerland, left, and Adirondack Health President and CEO Aaron Kramer, right, speak outside of Family Health at Lake Placid during a celebration of the clinic’s opening on Tuesday, July 30. (News photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

LAKE PLACID — The Hudson Headwaters Health Network celebrated the opening of its new Lake Placid clinic with a group of elected officials, staff and supporters on Tuesday, July 30.

The Family Health at Lake Placid clinic opened in the former Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center emergency room on June 24. HHHN received full approval from the state Department of Health to open its clinic on June 18 and subdivided the large ER space into five exam rooms, a medicine room and offices for nurses and doctors.

In the days since the clinic opened, 271 patients have walked through its doors, according to Melissa Gooley, regional practice leader for HHHN. More than 50 of those were new patients who had never visited a HHHN clinic before.

“We’re really happy to be here and to have this opportunity,” Hudson Headwaters CEO Tucker Slingerland told a crowd of supporters in the lobby of the Lake Placid clinic on Tuesday.

Slingerland said that he sees HHHN and Adirondack Health, which operates the Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center and the Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake, as working in tandem to meet the healthcare needs of the region.

Hudson Headwaters CEO Tucker Slingerland speaks to a crowd of supporters at a ceremony celebrating the opening of the Family Health at Lake Placid clinic on Tuesday, July 30. (News photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

“What we talk about at Adirondack Health is sustainable health care and access to health care, and we feel that you’re a great partner,” Adirondack Health President and CEO Aaron Kramer told Slingerland.

With the opening of this clinic — operated as a nonprofit, Federally Qualified Health Center — residents now have another option for primary care, a segment of health care that a 2024 report by the nonprofit Milbank Memorial Fund described as being in crisis because of a declining number of clinicians and a systemic lack of funding in the U.S. In New York state, more than 31% of adults and more than 16% of children don’t have access to a usual source of primary care, according to the report.

In Essex County, where HHHN’s clinic is located, roughly 18% of adults don’t have a regular health care provider and there is one primary care provider for every 2,630 people, according to Essex County Public Health’s 2022 Community Health Assessment. The ongoing physician shortage across the region prompted the creation of a new program by the Northern Border Regional Commission last year, which aims to increase the number of health care providers by sponsoring waivers for international physicians who got their degrees by studying in the U.S. on a J-1 visa. The waivers will allow these new physicians to skip a required two-year stint in their home country and begin working immediately in rural areas with physician shortages, including the Tri-Lakes.

Contending with the physician shortage — compounded by the local affordable housing crisis, which has prevented some prospects from moving to the region — HHHN was lucky to have other clinics around the region to draw staff from as it sought to open its Lake Placid location, according to Gooley. Many of its four providers, three practice leaders and other staff also work at either the Saranac Lake or Tupper Lake clinic. Some staff are commuting from Malone, one hour away. Other staff have been able to secure housing locally at Fawn Valley, a new housing development in Lake Placid built by Homestead Development Corp. Still, HNNN is looking to hire three people in Lake Placid and continues to welcome new providers to its network, according to Gooley.

Through its John Rugge Center for Community Impact, created in 2023, HHHN is looking to boost affordable housing and sustainable child care projects around the region for both its staff and its patients — whether that be through financial support via HHHN’s Upstream Fund or through advocacy, according to HHHN Chief Impact Officer Jessica Rubin.

Adirondack Health President and CEO Aaron Kramer talks about the health network’s collaboration with the Hudson Headwaters Health Network at an event celebrating the opening of HHHN’s Family Health at Lake Placid clinic on Tuesday, July 30. (News photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

HHHN’s status as a FQHC also means that the clinic focuses its work on underserved communities, accepting Medicaid insurance used by many moderate- to low-income residents. More than 94% of Essex County residents have health insurance, according to Essex County Public Health. But insurance doesn’t eliminate all barriers in access to care — out-of-pocket costs for those with insurance can be barriers to accessing care, according to the county’s Community Health Assessment. FQHCs charge for their services on a sliding scale based on their patients’ abilities to pay.

The closure of the emergency room at the Lake Placid Health and Medical Fitness Center, which now houses the clinic, was not without controversy. Though Saranac Lake’s AMC is located 10 miles from the former ER, it’s located in Franklin County. The Lake Placid ER was one of three ERs in Essex County, the others being in Ticonderoga, 64 miles from Lake Placid, and Elizabethtown, 26 miles away.

For a few months, local elected officials pushed Adirondack Health to release more information as it sought approval from the state Department of Health to close the ER and its Lake Placid dental care facility.

Former Wilmington town Supervisor Roy Holzer, who spent five of his 25 years with the Wilmington Volunteer Fire Department as an EMT, has lamented the closure of the ER because of the impact of the added drive time on the department. Holzer told the Enterprise last year that his town’s ambulance service had already started going to the Elizabethtown Community Hospital emergency room more often since Wilmington ambulances are sometimes sent to the Saranac Lake ER after arriving at the Lake Placid ER.

Lake Placid Mayor Art Devlin has said that the emergency room closure would impact the village’s police department and ambulance service, too, because of the extended drive times.

The Family Health at Lake Placid clinic has five exam rooms, much like the one pictured here. (News photo — Elizabeth Izzo)

But both Devlin and North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty have repeatedly underscored their belief that the closure of the ER was necessary to ensure that Adirondack Health, one of the largest private employers in the Tri-Lakes, survives amid mounting financial challenges that mirror those of many rural health care facilities across the country.

“Over the last couple of years, it’s been … let’s call it confrontational, with a lot of locals not really knowing what the future would bring,” Doty said Tuesday after touring the clinic. “I’m more than happy to report that the relationship that the town of North Elba has with Adirondack Health and with Hudson Headwaters is very strong. I’m happy to report that the ER in Saranac Lake has handled everything that has been put in front of them … they run a great service. I’m relieved for the residents of Lake Placid.

“I’m very pleased on behalf of the town and we welcome Hudson Headwaters with open arms,” Doty added.

This Lake Placid health center is HHHN’s 24th in the North Country region. HHHN clinics in Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake and Lake Placid serve a combined 8,500 patients, according to Slingerland and HHHN Director of External Affairs Pam Fisher. The network is opening its 25th health center, Plattsburgh Pediatric and Adolescent Health, at the end of August.

Family Health at Lake Placid offers family medicine, care management, family planning, integrated behavioral health and preventative women’s health services, according to Fisher.

The clinic is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and does currently accept same-day appointments. Starting in October, the clinic plans to expand its hours to 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays.