The Board of Directors of White Plains Hospital approved the signing of a letter of agreement to enter into a partnership with Montefiore at its Wednesday board meeting.
Schandler said Montefiore was chosen out of five academic medical centers over a six-month period of intensive discussions.
"In a world of health reform, hospitals need to be as effective and efficient as possible," he said. "Montefiore is an organization with a multi-billion dollar enterprise. This means more cost-effective goods and services.
"Our vision is similar to theirs. We both want to become increasingly more sub-specialized, almost a tertiary care-like organization."
According to Schandler, the next phase of the project after filling due-diligence paperwork, is getting together with Montefiore to perform strategic planning.
The most immediate impact of the agreement includes replacing clinical services provided by New York Presbyterian with services from Montefiore, as the hospital will be terminating its relationship with NY Presbyterian.
In the short term, Schandler anticipates to increase the White Plains Hospital's Dickstein Cancer Treatment Center by double in order to make space available for researchers they've recruited, along with the ability to provide higher level cancer treatments like bone marrow transplants.
In the long-term, he hopes the hospital will become the premier provider of tertiary care in the Hudson Valley.
"Our vision together with Montefiore is to create a sophisticated level of tertiary care in the Hudson Valley," he said. "We want doctors, hospitals and other providers that will create a coordinated level of care that will emanate from White Plains Hospital to other parts of the area."
Thus far, Schandler does not anticipate any road blocks in the merger, except for changes imposes by the government and the marketplace. However, he does expect competition to persist.
"We know the people we didn't go with will not give up on Westchester, so we expect heightened competition," he said.