Better care, better health, lower costs

By Bob Quinn
MONROE — Crystal Run Healthcare opened its third cutting-edge medical facility in the last 15 months on Tuesday, Nov. 1, this time on Route 17M in the Village of Monroe.
The public officials at the ribbon-cutting ceremony spoke of Crystal Run as an economic catalyst for Orange County.
They also said that the company begun 20 years ago by Dr. Hall Teitelbaum is changing the face of health care, not simply locally but across the country with its mantra: “Better care, better health, lower costs.”
'Jobs, real jobs'The 70,000-square foot, two-story medical office in Monroe houses more than 20 medical and surgical specialties. There is an infusion center and urgent care suites. There are accredited diagnostic testing services, including an on site laboratory, CT, X-Ray, Ultrasound, Nuclear Cardiology and women’s imaging, among others.
Crystal Run Healthcare begin in 1996 with nine doctors. There are now 133 partners.
Today, there also are 400 healthcare providers. The practice now has 2,300 employees at Crystal Run’s offices in the Town of Wallkill, Rock Hilll in Sullivan County, recently opened facilities in Newburgh, West Nyack in Rockland County and now Monroe as well as satellite offices elsewhere in Orange, Sullivan, Ulster and Rockland counties.
As County Executive Steven Neuhaus would latter say, Crystal Run Healthcare now has more employees than the county does.
Neuhaus talked about the economic engine that Crystal Run has been for the county and the Hudson Valley. “The private sector is outpacing the public sector,” he said. “And these are good jobs, real jobs.”
The health care of the communityCrystal Run has one mission, state Sen. William J. Larkin Jr. said: The healthcare of our community.
“When you reach my age (88), you ask: ‘Who will be there to take care of me?’ Hal Teitelbaum is preparing for that future. He is a leader in health care. We are blessed. They mean it. They are sincere when they say their mission is the health of our communities.”

In his remarks, Monroe Village Mayor James Purcell recalled how at one point when federal funds for the project were jeopardized during the 2013 budget sequestration, Crystal Run Healthcare officials were steadfast in their drive to open in Monroe.
“The Village of Monroe is the beneficiary of Hal’s vision,” Purcell said. “The Village of Monroe is very lucky.”
Assemblyman Karl Brabenec offered a personal assessment of his own interaction with the practice. He spoke of feeling pain in his side back in 2009. He ignored it for weeks, he said, until his family urged him to go to Crystal Run’s urgent care facility in the Town of Wallkill. He said he was in and out of a hospital for about a month.
Describing this life-saving experience, Brabenec said the staff at Crystal Run “performed a professional job.”
State Sen. John Bonacic acknowledged the success of this public-private enterprise, going so far as to thank Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for the $12.3 million state contribution to the cost of the facility.
“We are getting a reputation for quality health care here in the Hudson Valley,” Bonacic said. “We no longer have to run down to New York City.”
This benefits the consumer“This is an example of when people work together,” U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney said. “This is the answer to health care.”
Crystal Run is “pioneering health care in the United States,” he added. “A way to the future. We can afford this and more people will be included.”
For all the kudos, praise and acknowledgement, Teitelbaum thanked the men and women who helped him when he began practicing medicine in the Middletown area.
He also gave credit to his partners and to the Crystal Run Healthcare team: “Those who stay in the office late, who put patients first and who invest their own dollars in the organization.”
Teitelbaum closed his remarks by reworking a quote from road racing cyclist Greg Henderson:
“Affecting healthcare is like fighting a gorilla. You don’t stop when you are tired. You stop when the gorilla is tired,”Teitelbaum said. “And the gorilla is not tired.”