ONONDAGA — Onondaga Community College (OCC) is planning renovation work to help students pursuing health-care careers to learn in an environment offering real-life health-care scenarios. “So, our nurses, our physical-therapy assistants, our [radiologic technology] assistants … they’ll all be learning in a co-located space that simulates what they’re going to experience out in the workforce,” […]
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ONONDAGA — Onondaga Community College (OCC) is planning renovation work to help students pursuing health-care careers to learn in an environment offering real-life health-care scenarios.
“So, our nurses, our physical-therapy assistants, our [radiologic technology] assistants … they’ll all be learning in a co-located space that simulates what they’re going to experience out in the workforce,” Dr. Warren Hilton, president of Onondaga Community College, said in response to a question from a CNYBJ reporter.
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 at the Jan. 5 announcement.
Standing with local dignitaries and health-care professionals, the senator announced the funding during a visit to the OCC campus.
The $2 million grant for OCC is part of a total of $12 million that Schumer said he helped 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,” the Senate majority leader added.
OCC has “long wanted” to expand its programming and training but needed the funding to upgrade and expand the facility to accommodate the equipment and labs to train its 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 almost double the current enrollment in its health programs, per a Schumer news release on the funding announcement.
Additional projects
Besides OCC’s funding, the federal money 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.
“Upstate Medical University has been at the forefront of suicide prevention with its zero suicide program for early detection, the adolescent intensive outpatient program for crisis stabilization, the neuromodulation program for biologic-based treatments, and the innovative psychiatry high-risk program which was developed by Upstate Medical University to provide transformative healing for high risk adolescents and young adults, which was recently awarded the designation as a best practice for suicide prevention by the National Suicide Prevention Resource Center,” Dr. Robert Gregory, director of psychiatry high risk program at Upstate University Hospital, said in his remarks. “Having funding for a suicide prevention center will enable us to coordinate and expand these efforts to the entire community, bringing a beacon of hope for the recovery of suicidal individuals and their families.”
The health system 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 about $900,000 for a 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.
“Our project is to expand the rapid evaluation unit in our emergency room. Over the course of the pandemic, the need for emergency services has continued to increase. So, this project will allow us to expand the front of our emergency room, improve access, improve the patient experience, improve quality, and more efficiently get patients through the emergency room to allow to take care of more patients,” Dr. Seth Kronenberg, COO and chief medical officer at Crouse Health, explained in his remarks.
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 to turn a downtown building into a mental-health facility.
