In visit to Onondaga, Schumer announces federal health-care funding for OCC, area hospital projects

ONONDAGA, N.Y. — Onondaga Community College (OCC) will use $2 million in federal funding for a new hospital-simulation lab that’s meant to train future nurses in Central New York.

“Now that’s just what the doctor ordered to help address our health-care worker shortage,” U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D–N.Y.) said in his remarks.

The $2 million grant for OCC is part of a total of $12 million that Schumer said he secured in the recently approved federal budget to boost hospitals and health-care providers across the region.

The money seeks “to expand their facilities; to boost life-saving care in everything from cancer treatment to suicide prevention,” Schumer added.

Standing with local dignitaries and health-care professionals, the senator announced the funding during a late morning visit to OCC.

OCC has “long wanted” to expand their programming and their training but need the funding to upgrade and expand the facility to accommodate the equipment and labs to train their students, Schumer said.

This new facility will help bolster the OCC School of Health’s expansion as it prepares to launch new programs for a variety of “high demand” health-care career paths, which the school projects will “nearly double the current enrollment in health programs,” per a Schumer news release on the funding announcement.

Additional projects

Besides OCC’s funding, the federal funding will also benefit projects at some of the area’s hospitals.

Upstate University Hospital will use a $1.1 million grant for the creation of the Upstate Suicide Prevention Center. The organization anticipates serving at least 600 youth and young adults annually over the next five years in outpatient settings and in 50 school districts across Central New York. Upstate University Hospital will also use $900,000 for multidisciplinary lyme and tick-borne disease treatment center.

In addition, Crouse Health will use more than $1 million for work on the rapid-evaluation unit of Crouse Hospital’s emergency department, enabling it to reconfigure the current space and build out into an adjacent area.

The funding awards also include $2 million for the Auburn Community Hospital Cancer Center to help it buy medical equipment for cancer diagnostics.

Oneida Health Systems, Inc. will use $1 million for behavioral-health renovations, and  Valley Health Services in Herkimer will use a $2 million funding award for its skilled nursing and neurobehavioral care facility.

The funding awards also include nearly $3 million for Cortland County as it works turn a downtown building into a mental-health facility.