Albert Blankley, MS
Chief Operating Officer, Common Ground Health
An agency staff member since 2013, Albert Blankley oversees research and analytics at Common Ground Health and the reviews for the State Certificate of Need (CON) process and the region’s Community Technology Assessment Advisory Board (CTAAB). The board examines new health care technology, hospital expansions and other major expenditures to ensure that additional investments provide community benefits and do not, for example, unnecessarily duplicate existing resources. CTAAB’s work is supported by Common Ground Health research and staff.
Blankley in 2014 led the preparation of a Community Needs Assessment for our major hospital systems. The assessment, which received a perfect score from New York State, helped to identify ways to improve the health of Medicaid patients and to reduce preventable emergency room visits and hospital stays.
Blankley brings to his planning and CTAAB positions expertise in data mining, experience in the insurance industry and training in the biological sciences and public policy. He was an analyst and administrative policy developer for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rochester, where he developed complex claims data analyses and oversaw the development of numerous policies. His major projects included a Radiation Oncology initiative in which he worked with clinicians to develop best practices based on insights from insurance records and health outcomes.
Earlier, Blankley provided public health research for Mithoefer Center for Rural Surgery in Cooperstown, New York, where he lead an analyses of several rurally focused health care initiatives, including a review of the appropriate use of locum tenens surgeons in rural areas. In addition to his responsibilities at Common Ground Health, Blankley teaches ethics, values and public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also a member of The Children’s Agenda Policy Committee and a Certified EMT in New York State.
He earned a Master of Science in science technology and public policy and a bachelor’s in biology, both from RIT. Blankley lives in the Highland Park Neighborhood of City of Rochester with his wife, Kiersten and their son, Owen.