Fulton Medical Center renovations well-received, executive says

FULTON  —  The Fulton Medical Center received positive reviews from staff members and Fulton residents as new and renovated offices opened earlier this year, according to an executive at the organization that owns the facility.

“Our staff was able to come together in one building to provide a more efficient customer-service experience in one location,” says Jeffery Coakley, the vice president for strategic services at Oswego Health, which owns the Fulton Medical Center in the former A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital building at 510 S. Fourth St. in Fulton.

“They’ve been able to enjoy coming together as a team and having a new facility to provide a higher level of care,” Coakley says. “We’ve had a number of people that have told us how their individual experience there has been positive.”

New portions of the medical center, which is slightly less than 70,000 square feet, opened over a several-month period beginning in 2012. On Feb. 27, a medical imaging department, women’s health suite, and laboratory started taking patients, and a café launched. On Feb. 29, an occupational-health suite began serving businesses. And on April 10, a physical therapy department started rehabilitation.

Those departments’ openings followed the Fulton Medical Center’s urgent-care moving. The urgent care relocated to a renovated office in the center Oct. 6. It had been operating in the building in a temporary space since April 2009, after Lee Memorial Hospital closed.

The medical center’s new imaging department handles X-rays, digital fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, electrocardiography, and computed tomography. It has two digital X-ray rooms with dual energy, which can take two simultaneous scans of the chest or abdomen. 

The new women’s health suite, which is adjacent to the imaging department, has equipment for digital mammograms, bone-density screenings, and ultrasound testing. The suite is designed to offer patients privacy.

The Fulton Medical Center’s new laboratory has three stations. The center’s occupational-health department specializes in pre-employment physicals and other testing for employers.

Finally, the center’s physical therapy suite includes a 1,300- square-foot gym. It provides physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

“The therapy department is on a lower level of the building that is accessed off Park Street,” Coakley says. “There’s convenient parking on that lower level for patients that need convenient access to ambulate to that physical therapy service.”

The number of patients visiting the medical center’s urgent care has increased more quickly than expected. Oswego Health originally projected that the urgent care would see 22,000 patients in 2012, but it upped that number to 23,500 patients based on the volume of people visiting the facility in the first four months of the year, Coakley says.

Oswego Health expects 62,000 total patient visits at the Fulton Medical Center in 2012 — including the urgent care, laboratory, imaging center, and other offices. The center employs 53 people, and Oswego Health estimates 60 percent of those employees are new positions created since April of 2009.

The medical center is in line for one more new office this year. About 5,300 square feet of vacant space on the building’s lower level is earmarked for a primary-care center, Coakley says.

“We’re doing that in collaboration with Oswego County Opportunities, which has a primary-care site in the Lee Medical Office Building next door that would move,” he says.

Construction on the space is set to start later this year and should not be extensive, Coakley adds. He did not have a projected completion date.

“The bulk of that space has been prepared for the build-out, so the mechanical systems in the building, the electrical systems in the building, plumbing systems, have all been prepared to meet the needs of that new space,” Coakley says. “It’s just fitting out that space and attaching to those systems.”

The primary-care construction will cost about $800,000. Oswego Health will fund the project using state health contingency funding, according to Coakley. 

Syracuse–based Hayner Hoyt Corp. will be the primary-care project’s general contractor, and Syracuse–based King + King Architects LLP will be its architect. Those firms held those roles throughout the Fulton Medical Center renovation project.

Oswego Health started its overhaul of the former hospital building after purchasing it in December 2010 for $1.5 million. The price tag for turning the former hospital into the Fulton Medical Center was $22.3 million — a price that does not include the planned primary-care construction.

Oswego Health paid for the Fulton Medical Center project using $17.8 million in HEAL NY grant funding from the New York State Department of Health. It also used $4.5 million in legislative grants.

The renovated medical center includes a new lobby and a kitchen and laundry area leased by the Andrew Michaud Nursing Home, which sits next door.    

FULTON  —  The Fulton Medical Center received positive reviews from staff members and Fulton residents as new and renovated offices opened earlier this year, according to an executive at the organization that owns the facility.

“Our staff was able to come together in one building to provide a more efficient customer-service experience in one location,” says Jeffery Coakley, the vice president for strategic services at Oswego Health, which owns the Fulton Medical Center in the former A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital building at 510 S. Fourth St. in Fulton.

“They’ve been able to enjoy coming together as a team and having a new facility to provide a higher level of care,” Coakley says. “We’ve had a number of people that have told us how their individual experience there has been positive.”

New portions of the medical center, which is slightly less than 70,000 square feet, opened over a several-month period beginning in 2012. On Feb. 27, a medical imaging department, women’s health suite, and laboratory started taking patients, and a café launched. On Feb. 29, an occupational-health suite began serving businesses. And on April 10, a physical therapy department started rehabilitation.

Those departments’ openings followed the Fulton Medical Center’s urgent-care moving. The urgent care relocated to a renovated office in the center Oct. 6. It had been operating in the building in a temporary space since April 2009, after Lee Memorial Hospital closed.

The medical center’s new imaging department handles X-rays, digital fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, electrocardiography, and computed tomography. It has two digital X-ray rooms with dual energy, which can take two simultaneous scans of the chest or abdomen. 

The new women’s health suite, which is adjacent to the imaging department, has equipment for digital mammograms, bone-density screenings, and ultrasound testing. The suite is designed to offer patients privacy.

The Fulton Medical Center’s new laboratory has three stations. The center’s occupational-health department specializes in pre-employment physicals and other testing for employers.

Finally, the center’s physical therapy suite includes a 1,300- square-foot gym. It provides physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

“The therapy department is on a lower level of the building that is accessed off Park Street,” Coakley says. “There’s convenient parking on that lower level for patients that need convenient access to ambulate to that physical therapy service.”

The number of patients visiting the medical center’s urgent care has increased more quickly than expected. Oswego Health originally projected that the urgent care would see 22,000 patients in 2012, but it upped that number to 23,500 patients based on the volume of people visiting the facility in the first four months of the year, Coakley says.

Oswego Health expects 62,000 total patient visits at the Fulton Medical Center in 2012 — including the urgent care, laboratory, imaging center, and other offices. The center employs 53 people, and Oswego Health estimates 60 percent of those employees are new positions created since April of 2009.

The medical center is in line for one more new office this year. About 5,300 square feet of vacant space on the building’s lower level is earmarked for a primary-care center, Coakley says.

“We’re doing that in collaboration with Oswego County Opportunities, which has a primary-care site in the Lee Medical Office Building next door that would move,” he says.

Construction on the space is set to start later this year and should not be extensive, Coakley adds. He did not have a projected completion date.

“The bulk of that space has been prepared for the build-out, so the mechanical systems in the building, the electrical systems in the building, plumbing systems, have all been prepared to meet the needs of that new space,” Coakley says. “It’s just fitting out that space and attaching to those systems.”

The primary-care construction will cost about $800,000. Oswego Health will fund the project using state health contingency funding, according to Coakley. 

Syracuse–based Hayner Hoyt Corp. will be the primary-care project’s general contractor, and Syracuse–based King + King Architects LLP will be its architect. Those firms held those roles throughout the Fulton Medical Center renovation project.

Oswego Health started its overhaul of the former hospital building after purchasing it in December 2010 for $1.5 million. The price tag for turning the former hospital into the Fulton Medical Center was $22.3 million — a price that does not include the planned primary-care construction.

Oswego Health paid for the Fulton Medical Center project using $17.8 million in HEAL NY grant funding from the New York State Department of Health. It also used $4.5 million in legislative grants.

The renovated medical center includes a new lobby and a kitchen and laundry area leased by the Andrew Michaud Nursing Home, which sits next door.