ROME, N.Y. — Rome Health — the rebranded name of Rome Memorial Hospital — has announced plans to build a physician center on its campus in Rome. 

The health-care provider is gearing up for a $13.1 million capital project to create the new physician center on its main campus, which is located at 1500 N. James St. in Rome.

Primary and specialty-care clinics are currently scattered across multiple locations within two miles of the hospital, Mark Murphy, president and CEO of Rome Health, said in a Feb. 16 announcement.

“Bringing them together on the hospital’s main campus will provide greater convenience for patients with the proximity of diagnostic testing and pharmacy in a single location,” said Murphy. 

Primary care and specialty physicians, diagnostic testing, lab tests, and pharmacy services will all be available in one location, he added.

Pending state approval, Rome Health expects to begin construction in August, with the new physician center opening in June 2022. The project involves renovating existing administrative space on the ground floor and first floor and finishing the open space under the Bartlett Wing, which faces Black River Boulevard.

Rome Health has selected King + King Architects and the Hayner Hoyt Corporation, both of Syracuse, to design and construct the new physician center. 

When complete in June 2022, providers from the hospital’s affiliated practices will relocate to the new center. These include primary care providers from Rome Medical Group and Delta Medical, as well as many of the specialists from Rome Medical Practice.

Rebranding

The organization says the name Rome Health is meant to “more accurately reflect the breadth of services provided by the health-care system to enhance the health and well-being of the local community,” Murphy said in a Feb. 12 release.

The new name also “ushers in a new era” for Rome Health as the system prepares to welcome many new primary-care providers and physician specialists, including two new general surgeons and a cardiologist; introduce new service lines, such as bariatric surgery; and break ground on the new physician center.

“…We’ve become a comprehensive health-care system that connects people to the best clinicians and the latest technologies so they are easily accessible to our community,” Murphy said. “We’re more than a hospital. From primary care to long-term care, we deliver the care people need here in Rome, including the latest advancements in spinal surgery and hereditary risk screening.”

Murphy went on to say that Rome Health has also forged relationships with “highly-ranked experts,” such as St. Joseph’s Health’s cardiologists, to coordinate patient care. 

The new Rome Health name will begin to appear “over time” at its many off-site physician practices and outpatient centers. They include primary-care offices, such as Rome Medical Group; Boonville Family Care; Camden Family Care; and Delta Medical. They also include specialty-care locations such as Rome Medical Practice neurology; pulmonology and sleep medicine; surgical services; orthopedics and sports medicine; general surgery; and All About Women obstetrics/gynecology.

Its outpatient services — such as community recovery center; prenatal care; Regional Center for Wound Care, and Chestnut Commons therapy, lab, and X-ray — will also operate under the new name, Rome Health said.