Hamilton Family Health Center breaks ground on expansion, renovation project

HAMILTON — Community Memorial Hospital (CMH) in Hamilton on Oct. 2 broke ground on an expansion and renovation project of the Hamilton Family Health Center at 164 Broad St.

The “Building for the Future” project is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2019 and will “provide convenient, one-stop primary and secondary specialty care” for residents in the Madison County area, Community Memorial said in a release.

The 5,000-square-foot expansion and renovation project is designed to put primary and specialty care “under one roof,” CMH said. The project includes an enlarged patient waiting area and the addition of 20 to 25 new exam rooms.

Construction is set to begin in October. Crews will start building the shell of the expansion, which will be complete “before the snow flies,” per CMH. Construction workers will then use the winter and spring to work on the interior and layout with an anticipated completion in the late spring or early summer in 2019. 

The work will result in space for at least three additional primary-care physicians and two to three specialty offices, like urology and obstetrics and gynecology.

CMH said it “recognized two critical necessities” that it needed, including primary-care physicians and the physical space to house the providers. The hospital has determined that its “current lack of space” made physician recruitment “challenging.” 

The Hamilton Family Health Center is currently at capacity with 11 providers and is “frequently limited” by the number of exam rooms available. When looking at the opportunity to expand and renovate the hospital, the organization “had to take into consideration” the Family Health Center, which “quickly became our priority,” Sean Fadale, president and CEO of Community Memorial, stated.

The organization held the groundbreaking in front of the entrance to the Hamilton Family Health Center. 

Local residents and community officials attended the ceremony. Those participating in the event included Fadale; Village of Hamilton Mayor Ruthann Loveless; Dr. Robert Delorme, who served as master of ceremonies; Dr. Seth Kronenberg, COO & CMO of Crouse Health in Syracuse; and Julie Rubenstein, chair of the CMH Foundation board of directors. 

Community Memorial Hospital has an affiliation agreement with Crouse Health in Syracuse.

For more than 60 years, Community Memorial Hospital has provided care for patients in 30 Central New York communities in Madison County “and beyond.” The hospital provides primary-care services with a network of five Family Health Centers in Hamilton, Cazenovia, Morrisville, Munnsville, and Waterville) an after-hours urgent care clinic, and 24/7 emergency-medicine services.