New York manufacturing activity bounces back in September

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The Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business-conditions index rebounded into positive territory by rising 21 points in September to 1.9. The index had plummeted 20 points in August to -19 after declining six points in July to 1.1. The general business-conditions index is the monthly gauge on New York’s manufacturing sector. The September reading — […]

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The Empire State Manufacturing Survey general business-conditions index rebounded into positive territory by rising 21 points in September to 1.9.

The index had plummeted 20 points in August to -19 after declining six points in July to 1.1. The general business-conditions index is the monthly gauge on New York’s manufacturing sector.

The September reading — based on firms responding to the survey — indicates business activity “was little changed” in New York state, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its Sept. 15 report. But it was a substantial improvement over the prior month where business conditions for manufacturers were deteriorating

A positive reading on the Empire State index indicates expansion or growth in manufacturing activity, while a negative number shows a decline in the sector.

The September survey report found 27 percent of respondents reported that conditions had improved over the month, while 25 percent said that conditions had worsened, the New York Fed said.

It also found that new orders and shipments increased.

Survey details

The new-orders index shot up 25 points to 5.1, and the shipments index also jumped 25 points to 12.4, pointing to an increase in orders and shipments.

The unfilled-orders index remained below zero at -5.2, “a sign that unfilled orders continued to decline,” the New York Fed said. Similarly, the inventories index came in at -6.2, indicating that inventories “contracted again.”

The delivery-times index ticked up to 2.1, suggesting little change in delivery times.

The index for number of employees came in at -2.7, indicating a slight decline in employment levels, and the average workweek index edged up to -5.0, indicating another monthly decline in hours worked.

The prices-paid index held steady at 25.8, pointing to little change in the pace of input price increases, while the prices-received index rose 7 points to 19.6, “signaling a modest pickup” in the pace of selling-price increases.

The index for future business conditions rose 6 points to 26.3, its highest level in more than a year, suggesting that firms have become more optimistic about future conditions.

New orders and shipments are expected to increase significantly in the months ahead, and employment is expected to grow. The capital-spending index edged down to 10.3, suggesting that capital-spending plans “remained somewhat weak.”

The New York Fed distributes the Empire State Manufacturing Survey on the first day of each month to the same pool of about 200 manufacturing executives in New York state. On average, about 100 executives return responses.

Rekord Structures expands in Binghamton area after acquisition

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Small Business, Subscriber Only

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Rekord Structures, LLC purchased the Eureka! military and commercial tents product lines from Johnson Outdoors, Inc. earlier this year as it works to expand its operations in the greater Binghamton area and U.S. Formed in Poland more than 25 years ago, Rekord has focused on engineering and structural manufacturing of various structures

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Formed in Poland more than 25 years ago, Rekord has focused on engineering and structural manufacturing of various structures including long-term tension membrane structures. Eventually, that focus turned to the commercial and military markets, says Yuliia Nevmerzhytska, Rekord’s business-development manager.

The business grew across Europe and the company eventually turned its sights on the U.S. market, she says. To overcome the stumbling block of the U.S. Department of Defense requiring products manufactured in America, Rekord Structures began looking for manufacturing partners in the U.S., Nevmerzhytska says. That led to the company opening a U.S. location in Washington, Georgia.

Now Rekord is looking to grow its U.S. operations. Along the way, the company encountered Eureka!, which manufactures military, commercial, and camping tents, including in the greater Binghamton region.

“It turns out their produce line was so much more impressive,” Nevmerzhytska says.

While initial purchase offers were rebuffed, Rekord Structures eventually struck a deal with Johnson Outdoors to purchase the commercial and military lines, while Johnson Outdoors continues to produce Eureka! camping tents.

According to a press release from Johnson Outdoors, the $13.7 million deal closed on March 17 of this year. The sale does not include the Eureka! name. Rekord renamed the Binghamton business as InTENTional Systems.

The acquisition is huge in terms of growth for Rekord Structures, Nevmerzhytska says. “It pretty much doubled our catalog,” adding at least 40 new products to Rekord’s offerings.

While Rekord Structures focused on larger, more long-term structures, the InTENTional military products include small tents for one to four people and quick-deployment structures to its other offerings which include large-scale tents, aviation hangars, and base life-support systems. These base life-support structures are fully operational base camps that can accommodate anywhere from 100 to 20,000 people. Rekord can fully customize, deliver, and install a base camp complete with kitchen, laundry, bathroom, electric, and HVAC systems.

The former InTENTional commercial line includes large tents such as wedding canopies and pole tents.

While the Department of Defense and its primary vendors make up a large percentage of Rekord’s customers, Nevmerzhytska says the company is excited to expand the commercial offerings.

Rekord Structures employs 70 people in Binghamton, including 15 people hired since the acquisition, and is still hiring.

With about 400,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space in Binghamton, Nevmerzhytska says the company is already looking for an additional facility in the area to give it room to expand. Rekord would like to double its space, she says, including a larger yard area for items that can be stored outside.

Over the next three years, the company hopes to double its U.S. business, and aims to do that by expanding toward the Central U.S. and west coast, Nevmerzhytska says.

“It’s been harder to operate in that area without facilities,” she says. Rekord does have a small warehouse in Texas.

Founded in 1998, Rekord Structures has more than 1,300 employees worldwide and four offices in the U.S.

N.Y. home sales continue falling in August with 19% decline

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 11,310 previously owned homes in August, down 18.8 percent from the 13,922 existing homes sold in August 2022. Pending sales also fell more than 11 percent, pointing to further declines in closed home sales in the next couple months. That’s according to the August monthly housing report that

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 11,310 previously owned homes in August, down 18.8 percent from the 13,922 existing homes sold in August 2022.

Pending sales also fell more than 11 percent, pointing to further declines in closed home sales in the next couple months.

That’s according to the August monthly housing report that the New York Association of Realtors (NYSAR) issued on Sept. 21.

“Inventory of homes available across New York State shrunk once again as mortgage rates surged to a two-decade high in August,” NYSAR said to open its housing report.

NYSAR cited Freddie Mac as indicating interest rates hit their highest point in more than 20 years. The monthly average on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose from 6.84 percent in July to 7.07 percent in August. It represents the highest monthly average since December 2001, when the monthly average was also 7.07 percent. Freddie Mac is the more common way of referring to the Virginia–based Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

New York sales data

Pending sales totaled 10,826 in August, down 11.4 percent from the 12,218 pending sales in the same month in 2022, according to the NYSAR data.

As inventory continued falling, home prices continued to rise. The August 2023 statewide median sales price was $411,500, up 4.8 percent from the August 2022 median sales price of $392,620.

The months’ supply of homes for sale at the end of August stood at 3.0 months, down 9 percent from the 3.3 months of supply at the end of August 2022, per NYSAR’s report. A 6 month to 6.5-month supply is considered a balanced market, the association says.

The inventory of homes for sale totaled 27,686 in August, down nearly 27 percent from 37,865 in August 2022. It marks 46 straight months in which the number of homes available has declined in year-over-year comparisons, NYSAR said.

New listings of homes for sale fell 10.3 percent to 13,331 this August from 14,863 in the year-ago month.

All home-sales data is compiled from multiple-listing services in New York, and it includes townhomes and condominiums in addition to existing single-family homes, according to NYSAR.

VC firm partner sees opportunity with new Tech Garden office

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SYRACUSE — A partner in ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is giving a thumbs up to its role as the first in-residence investor at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden. Its operations at the Tech Garden also represent an upstate New York office for the New York City–based firm. The Tech Garden, operated by CenterState CEO, is home

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SYRACUSE — A partner in ff Venture Capital (ffVC) is giving a thumbs up to its role as the first in-residence investor at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden.

Its operations at the Tech Garden also represent an upstate New York office for the New York City–based firm.

The Tech Garden, operated by CenterState CEO, is home to the Genius NY program, described as the world’s largest business accelerator for uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).

Genius NY stands for Growing ENtrepreneurs & Innovators in UpState New York.

To date, ffVC has invested in two Genius NY portfolio companies: CivRobotics and CarScanner.

“This partnership offers ffVC a unique opportunity to be actively engaged with some of the best mechatronic startups in the world, working with them to turn their products into thriving companies generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue,” Oliver Mitchell, partner at ffVC, said in the CenterState CEO announcement. “Central New York is a critical environment for launching uncrewed systems and offers a unique landing pad for international founders entering the United States. We are excited to deepen our efforts in the Upstate region, expanding our portfolio and presence in the fields of autonomy and mobility.”

Mitchell recently joined ffVC’s partnership to increase the firm’s focus in the automation sector and sits on the boards of portfolio companies Civ Robotics and Cambrian Robotics.

He has a track record as a serial entrepreneur and angel investor with recent exits in Ekso Bionics (NASDAQ: EKSO), NovoCure (NASDAQ: NVCR), and TripleLift.

Within the new partnership, ffVC will have an office at the Tech Garden and will be available to meet with Genus NY and Tech Garden members, “bringing potential new deal flow opportunities to the region,” CenterState CEO said in a news release.

Almost half of companies in Genius NY have gone on to raise follow-on funding from venture capitalists, with more expected. Each cohort year, companies are fundraising and seeking follow-on funding, making this partnership “crucial” for the continued growth and survival of startups, CenterState CEO contends.

“This partnership and the growth of venture capital and early-stage investment in the region is another sign of the strength of Central New York’s innovation ecosystem,” Kara Jones, director of Genius NY, said in the release. “This valuable new investment tool is part of [a] growing set of resources that will help entrepreneurs thrive here in our region.”

Founded in 2008, ffVC is an international venture-capital firm with offices and funds in the U.S. and Europe. The firm has been helping startup founders with funding and resources to launch technologies that “impact the lives of millions,” per the announcement.

Since its first investment in the drone space in 2014, ffVC has been an active investor in the automation industry, including such firms as Burro, Cambrian Robotics, Digital Twin, Lynq, Manna, PlusOne Robotics, SkyCatch, and Zenith Aerospace.

To date, Genius NY has invested more than $30 million in 32 startups, which have gone on to raise more than $100 million in follow-on funding, adding more than 80 new local jobs from teams, CenterState CEO said.

Finalists for the program’s seventh cohort are currently participating in the accelerator, and will compete for $3 million in direct investment, with one grand prize of up to $1 million and four $500,000 awards, at Innovation Night featuring GENIUS NY Pitch Finals, on Oct. 4.

“The decision by ff Venture Capital to open an office at The Tech Garden, home to the New York State-supported GENIUS NY accelerator, reflects the global success of this uncrewed aerial systems competition and the attention and private investment it’s attracting based on all that the Central New York region has to offer,” Hope Knight, president, CEO, and commissioner of Empire State Development said in the release.

Additionally, ffVC and Genius NY plan to continue to hold its annual Robotics and Drone Summit, with the goal of exploring how drones and robotics are impacting the construction, agricultural, transportation, supply chain, energy, aeronautics, consumer, and defense industries.

Last year, the summit was held in the fall in New York City and attracted more than 300 attendees including mechatronic entrepreneurs from across the world, leading investors, corporate innovation leaders, and curious customers.

Samaritan Medical Center expands ED secure behavioral health unit

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WATERTOWN, N.Y. — The emergency department (ED) at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown is undergoing a construction project to expand and enhance the care of psychiatric patients within the secure behavioral health unit (BHU). The hospital says it needs the expansion as the average daily census of patients has been “consistently exceeding” physical space. The

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The hospital says it needs the expansion as the average daily census of patients has been “consistently exceeding” physical space.

The project is set to cost $2.5 million and construction has begun, per its Sept. 22 announcement. The hospital expects crews to finish the project by the summer of 2024.

Samaritan leaders contacted the New York State Department of Health (DOH) about the unit’s physical constraints and then decided to seek emergency approval on a certificate of need that identified the space the hospital needs. The state DOH “quickly approved it,” Samaritan Medical Center said.

The construction effort will expand the area to a 12-bed secure unit to “meet the needs of the community” and the ED will have 29 medical beds.

To make room, the current coffee shop in the main lobby will move to a different space in the lobby. The hospital also plans to move physician office space and claim hallway space in the lobby area. The process will happen in a phased approach to limit the impact to current operations.

Explaining the need

The average daily census of psychiatric patients in the past 12 months has grown to about eight patients, with a high of over 20 patients at one time. The number “collectively exceeds” the secure unit and overflow capacity, which forces these patients into medical beds within the emergency department.

It results in two immediate impacts that include fewer beds to treat medical patients and the need for more staff members to watch psychiatric patients in these medical rooms with “inherent equipment and safety risks” in a traditional medical room, the hospital said.

Besides the increase in patient census, the patients, especially children, are waiting longer in the ED when they need hospitalization. The current physical space to help safely stabilize these patients is “not adequate” within the emergency department’s current behavioral health unit (BHU).

The increased number of adults and children in a “mental health crisis” can be attributed to many factors, but there is not one particular trend. The pandemic is certainly a newer factor with more stress, anxiety, isolation and breaks in outpatient care, Samaritan said.

Fundraising

The BHU expansion project’s cost of $2.5 million is not in the hospital’s budget for 2023 but has been “deemed necessary as a matter of patient safety concerns and to mitigate extra staffing needs.”

Samaritan Medical Center has identified “several” revenue sources, and it continues to look for grant dollars to help offset the construction cost, the organization said.

The Samaritan Foundation; Children’s Miracle Network of Northern New York; and Jefferson County have all committed funds totaling about $793,000.

The Samarian Foundation committed half of the net proceeds from its recent Thousand Islands Golf Tournament in June to the project for a total of just over $60,000. In addition, the foundation is going to dedicate proceeds from an event later this year, Festival of Trees, to the project.

The Children’s Miracle Network of Northern New York and its allocations committee designated $300,000 to the project because there is a direct pediatric-care need to this expansion.

On April 4, the Jefferson County Board of Legislators approved a request from Jefferson County Community Services to provide $430,000 to Samaritan Medical Center for this expansion.

The funds have been made available as a result of the New York State Attorney General’s successful litigation with several pharmaceutical companies. The $430,000 is designated to assist with the physical expansion of the behavioral health unit, which has had “dramatic” increases in opiate-related visits, Samaritan said.

The hospital will also use the funding to begin providing “lifesaving, medication-assisted” therapies to those who need medical assistance to begin their journey to recovery.

Oswego Health is using new molecular lab equipment

Health Care, Nonprofits, Subscriber Only, Technology

Deploys the cobas 5800 system OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego Health on Sept. 6 announced its purchase of the cobas 5800 system, which it describes as a fully automated molecular laboratory instrument. It offers a flexible PCR testing product to enable “accurate and reliable” diagnosis of infectious diseases, including chlamydia, gonorrhea, COVID-19, and HPV testing, Oswego Health

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SUNY launches task force on health-care worker shortage

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It includes Upstate Medical, Binghamton–area university leaders ALBANY, N.Y. — SUNY’s new task force on New York’s health-care worker shortage includes the leaders of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, Binghamton University, and SUNY Broome Community College. Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University; Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University;

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It includes Upstate Medical, Binghamton–area university leaders

ALBANY, N.Y. — SUNY’s new task force on New York’s health-care worker shortage includes the leaders of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, Binghamton University, and SUNY Broome Community College.

Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University; Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University; and Tony Hawkins, president of SUNY Broome are among the 11 members of the SUNY-wide “Future of Health Care Workforce Task Force.”

The group represents campuses educating more than half of SUNY’s overall health-care enrollment, per a SUNY announcement.

SUNY Chancellor John King, Jr. announced the task force Sept. 8 while addressing the Health WorkForce New York, an organization that was formed in 2014 to improve access to quality health care in underserved communities.

King is convening the group “as New York State continues to work to fill a projected gap in health care professionals, particularly in the field of nursing,” SUNY said.

“I’m grateful to Chancellor King for creating this pivotal Future of Health Care Workforce Task Force, and I am pleased to join this panel with so many of my visionary colleagues,” Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University, said in the SUNY announcement. “As an academic medical center, Upstate sees the shortage from all sides as we train the health care workforce of tomorrow and care for our patients today. I am confident that with this initiative, SUNY can be part of the solution in addressing this shortage and creating a more robust health care workforce.”

The task force will focus on expanding SUNY’s educational capacity in health-care profession shortage areas, “strengthening the pipeline” of students in professions that have been hit hardest and aligning education with health-care industry needs.

“The ongoing shortage of health care professionals poses a significant long-term threat to our state’s ability to provide high-quality care to New Yorkers, and SUNY is a key part of the solution. As such, we must take immediate and concerted steps to ensure the availability of a highly trained, diverse, and sustainable health care workforce,” King said in the SUNY announcement. “One step, which has already been taken thanks to Governor Hochul and our legislative partners, is to provide nursing students the opportunity to complete one-third of their clinical work in a high-quality simulated environment, which will further enhance their success. Through the input of this task force, SUNY will continue to advocate for expanded innovation for this life-saving industry.”

SUNY says it educates over 40,000 students through degree-granting health-care profession programs. More than 11,000 health professionals graduate each year from a SUNY institution, including one in every three medical-school graduates and nearly one in every three nursing graduates in New York state. SUNY’s influence in health-workforce education reaches further when considering workforce and continuing education programs, which offer training for essential professions such as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, certified nursing assistants, and more.

Upstate’s new NP residency program to start in November

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Upstate Medical University in November will start a new nurse-practitioner (NP) residency program that it says will offer a new “post-graduate experience while bringing much-needed medical care to underserved communities.” To pay for the program, Upstate Medical is using a grant from the Rockville, Maryland–based Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an

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To pay for the program, Upstate Medical is using a grant from the Rockville, Maryland–based Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The $2.8 million will fund four, one-year resident positions for each of the next four years in underserved rural, urban, and tribal areas for a total of 16 residency positions.

Any clinically trained NP or DNP (doctor of nursing practice) who is nationally board certified and graduated in the last 18 months is eligible to apply for the first cohort.

Jennifer Vaughn, executive assistant dean of administration for the Upstate College of Nursing, said the goal of the grant is to increase access to health care in underserved areas and provide “much-needed” training for the nurse practitioners.

“It is significant in terms of the need in these areas,” Vaughn added in an Upstate Medical news release.

For more information on how to apply, contact Vaughn at johnjenn@upstate.edu.

Residents will work at East Hill Medical Center in Auburn (rural); the Onondaga Nation Health Center in Nedrow (tribal); and at Liberty Resources Primary Care on James Street; and Upstate Family and Preventive Medicine at the Nappi Wellness Institute (urban).

The program is a collaboration between Upstate’s College of Nursing and the department of family medicine, which has family-medicine residents at these locations as well.

Together, the NP and family-medicine residents will receive training one-half day each week. The NPs will receive extra training and rotations in behavioral and mental health and women’s health, two services that are “especially lacking” in these areas, Upstate Medical University said.

Dr. Clyde Satterly, chair of the department of family medicine, said adding an NP resident program has long been a goal of his for several reasons, including the opportunities it provides for more interprofessional education.

“I feel this is important to academic medical centers more than ever because it prepares health professions learners who may be coming from different backgrounds and specialties to learn to work in a collaborative team environment,” he said. “This is exactly what we should be doing to provide effective patient-centered population health.”

In addition to serving the community, the new program benefits both NPs and DNPs, allowing for continuing education and a “smoother entry into full-time practice,” Upstate said.

Vaughn said nurse practitioners traditionally graduate and are launched straight into practice with varying caseloads and levels of mentorship and orientation.

“This establishes a solid process that allows the NP a year to ramp up their caseload and introduces them to the interdisciplinary setting because they will receive their training right alongside the family practice medical residents,” Vaughn said. “This will give those NPs that same transition into practice and a really solid foundation for going forward.”

Satterly said as care becomes “increasingly complex,” the need for formal additional training for nurse practitioners becomes “that much more important.”

“Providing primary care in today’s environment can be pretty complex not only because our knowledge base must be comprehensive, but because we now understand how patients’ social determinants of health can affect outcomes,” he said. “This is becoming more of a challenge to family-medicine residents who complete a three-year residency but is especially difficult for nurse practitioners who receive no residency training. The additional collaborative training from our residency will help to better prepare NPs for more effective practice.”

Vaughn said such residency programs are in their infancy and that the goal for Upstate’s program is to go through the accreditation process in year three and to have more sustainable funding in the future.

Both Vaughn and Satterly also noted that they hope the new program leads to more retention of the residents in the local community.

Cayuga Medical Center opens urology unit

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Cayuga Urology is now open at Cayuga Medical Center on Dates Drive in Ithaca. “We are excited to welcome urology as one of our Cayuga Health services,” Cayuga Health VP of Ambulatory Services Jeff Penoyer said in a press release. Urologist Dr. Jason Cohen offers advanced urologic care, including medical and surgical

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Bassett, Hartwick, & SUNY Oneonta partner on workforce program

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ONEONTA, N.Y. — Bassett Healthcare Network, Hartwick College, and SUNY Oneonta have teamed up to create Bassett CARES, a workforce-development program aimed at keeping new college graduates in the area and addressing critical workforce shortages across Bassett’s network of facilities. The CARES acronym stands for “career advancement and retention experience for students,” and Bassett hopes

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The CARES acronym stands for “career advancement and retention experience for students,” and Bassett hopes to take on up to 50 recent graduates from the two colleges annually to work full time for Bassett.

In return, participants will receive a student-loan repayment stipend of $5,000 every six months they remain employed with Bassett. Participants can receive up to $25,000 but no more than the total value of their loans if that amount is less than $25,000.

Bassett President/CEO Dr. Tommy Ibrahim, Hartwick College President Darren Reisberg, and SUNY Oneonta President Alberto Cardelle gathered at Bassett’s A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta Sept. 13 for a signing ceremony marking the program.

It’s just one step among many to help battle the workforce shortage in health care, says Christine Pirri, chief of workforce solutions at Bassett.

“This is open to all different positions,” she notes, not just patient-facing positions. “We need clean rooms. We need to make sure our employees are being fed; our patients are being fed.”

Bassett currently has about 700 open, non-physician positions across its network that includes five hospitals along with numerous community clinics, school clinics, nursing homes, and assisted-living facilities.

“We have a number of opportunities,” Pirri says. Along with the forementioned roles in environmental sciences and food services, there are openings in human resources, security, marketing, as well as nursing, laboratory, and radiology.

Bassett has partnered with the two colleges on other initiatives, and Bassett CARES builds on that foundation, she says.

Other recruitment and retention efforts include a $50 million investment into wages and compensation and an incentive program.

“You want to make sure you are providing competitive wages and building a strong pipeline,” Pirri says. To meet the need for strong leadership, Bassett is sending management employees to a leadership program by the Healthcare Association of New York State.

This past summer, Friends of Bassett launched a junior volunteer program for youth ages 14 to 18, and Bassett is working to identify and make available opportunities for college students to fill part-time or per-diem roles, Pirri says. Along with closing the workforce gap for Bassett, those roles provide students with valuable hands-on experience which is sometimes required for some higher-learning programs.

The goal of Bassett CARES, she says, is to not only find employees for Bassett but also to encourage young people to stay in the area.

Educational partners will offer free or subsidized on-campus housing in the summer for matriculated students working for Bassett during the summer months. SUNY Oneonta also plans to provide bridge housing for recent graduates for the summer directly following graduation.

“Bassett CARES embodies the leave of collaboration, recognizing that together, we can make a transformative impact on our region,” Reisberg said in a press statement. “Through the partnership, our students will gain exposure to the many different career opportunities in health care, from direct patient care to administrative roles, and help them choose a path that is both rewarding and fulfilling.”

Cardelle added, “Partnerships like this not only address workforce shortages but create an educational ecosystem that provides students with valuable educational and career opportunities.”

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