Saratoga Hospital Plans New“ Center for Successful Aging” and Daycare Center

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Hospital wants to build a new “Center for Successful Aging” near its main campus that would function as a one-stop shop for local seniors. 

The hospital presented an application for a Planned Unit Development Amendment to the Saratoga Springs City Council on Tuesday evening that would allow them to demolish an existing 10,000-square-foot, one-story building on Myrtle Street across from the hospital’s main campus, and replace it with the new 60,000-square-foot, three-story office center.

“What I’m proposing this evening is more than an office building,” Saratoga Hospital CEO Jill VanKuren told the city council. “It’s a change in the way we do business.”

“Our community is aging. We have an influx of older people coming into Saratoga, coming into our community, and one of the things they’re looking for is fantastic healthcare,” VanKuren said. “The concept is bringing together the services that people would need to age in place under the same roof, close to the hospital, so that existing services…can be accessed more readily.”

The Center for Successful Aging would aim to address the needs of seniors with multiple medical conditions, geriatric syndromes, and social needs that are the results of aging. Seniors visiting the center would be able to have chronic and complex conditions cared for in one location. The building would include offices for primary care physicians, specialists, care coordinators, social workers, pharmacists, and dieticians.  

“The ideal vision is you would come in one day with your family member, spend a few hours with us, get your appointments done, and walk out with a plan of care,” VanKuren said. 

As part of its proposal before the city, the hospital is also hoping to open a daycare center for its staff members. Although there’s currently no concrete plan in place, the hospital has already had some preliminary conversations with potential partners such as the YMCA.  

Because hospital workers have long shifts, work at night, and sometimes work only three days per week, it’s difficult for them to find childcare services. Creating a daycare center inside the hospital would likely help with staff recruitment and retention.

“When we do exit interviews, when people leave us, that’s one of the answers that they give, that they weren’t able to find daycare after they’ve had their children,” VanKuren told Saratoga TODAY. “They try to come back to work after maternity leave and they have a lot of difficulty finding that infant care or finding affordable care for their toddlers and preschool-aged children.”

Both the proposed daycare center and the Center for Successful Aging are works in progress, and the hospital is actively seeking community feedback. 

“We really look forward to welcoming [the community] into this conversation and truly building something that meets the needs of our community now and into the future,” VanKuren said.