OSWEGO — Construction crews have started work on a $7.6 million project to renovate Oswego Hospital’s surgical unit, an effort that the hospital projects will finish before the end of the year. 

The project involves three phases and targets the facility’s third and fourth floors, Oswego Health announced. 

Hayner Hoyt Corporation of Syracuse is doing the renovation work, and King + King Architects, also of Syracuse, handled the design work, Jamie Leszczynski, senior director of communications at Oswego Health, tells CNYBJ in an email.

The project includes the restructuring of all patient rooms to allow for more privacy and accommodation necessary for clinical support and diagnostic equipment. 

Once finished, the unit will have a total of 40 private rooms and four semi-private rooms, Oswego Health said.

The project also includes the relocation of the nurses’ station on both floors, allowing for “more immediate access” to the care staff. 

Crews will also install a new heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning filtration system in each patient room. The hospital contends the equipment — purchased from Pulaski–based HealthWay Home Products — will “greatly improve” the indoor air quality within the patient rooms.

In addition, the hospital will install Indigo-Clean, a new light technology, in each patient bathroom to “continuously disinfect” the surfaces within the bathroom area. The technology is known to reduce pathogens by nearly 99 percent, “creating a greatly reduced chance” of hospital-acquired infection and better patient outcomes.

The work also involves waiting areas for family members to gather on each floor, Oswego Health said.                       

SYRACUSE — A former U.S. Attorney General (AG) will lead an independent review of Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) in the wake of the department’s interactions with students protesting the university’s handling of racist incidents on campus.

Syracuse University has hired Loretta Lynch, who was the nation’s 83rd AG — serving from April 2015 to January 2017 under President Barack Obama. 

Lynch has been known throughout her career for her work in the area of police-community relations, Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a statement that the school posted Feb. 24 on its news website. 

Lynch is now working for the Washington, D.C.–based law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

“I believe this review is necessary given that concerns have been raised through several channels about how DPS engages with our community and how it has managed various interactions with students, including protestors. Our DPS officers work very hard every day and night to protect our students and our community. Our community expectations and our needs have evolved, and this review will result in recommendations on how DPS can best meet today’s community’s needs going forward,” per Syverud’s statement.

The chancellor issued the statement following a week in which students protested inside Crouse-Hinds Hall, the university’s administration building, complaining about how Syracuse University leaders have handled racial-bias incidents on campus, including racist graffiti and phone messages.

Additional actions

Hiring Lynch was among three specific areas for which Syverud “directed that we take immediate action.” The chancellor’s statement followed his conversations with many students, deans and faculty, Syracuse said. 

He also received feedback from “early engagement sessions” conducted by a special committee of the school’s board of trustees and an independent advisory panel of experts, per the statement.

Besides the hiring of Lynch, Syverud figures that in the future, Syracuse faculty and deans “must have greater involvement, oversight and authority” on how the school handles protests. 

Syverud wants interim provost John Liu to work with the deans, faculty and administrators to develop protocols to “achieve this mandate.”

The chancellor also directed an independent review of Syracuse’s “Student Experience function.” 

“I am concerned that our students’ needs have evolved and changed, and that our team must be able to effectively execute on these needs, even in rapidly developing circumstances like the protests this week. We will announce the leader of this effort soon,” per Syverud’s statement.

Syverud concluded his statement noting that he believes these steps are “needed now for the sake of our students and university.” 

“There will be more steps to come, including from the continuing work of the Special Committee and Independent Panel. Our university is making progress on many fronts —including on the many Campus Commitments, and in identifying, and holding responsible, three students for hateful acts so far,” said Syverud.