Oswego Health fundraising campaign nears $3.5 million goal

OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego Health continues a fundraising campaign that has, so far, raised about $3 million of its $3.5 million goal.

The initiative will help pay for the organization’s current priorities, which include “modernizing” inpatient care, a focus on mental health and wellness, and local orthopedic care at the Fulton Medical Center.

To date, community members, foundations, and corporations have contributed nearly $3 million toward the overall goal, or about 85 percent of the goal amount.

The fundraising effort seeks to “invest in and advance its mission of best-in-class health care,” Oswego Health, a health-care system with 17 locations, said in an April 21 news release.

The endeavor, titled “Caring for Our Community, Right at Home, The Campaign for Oswego Health,” is the result of the health system’s “consideration for future priorities,” while focusing on patient care.

Oswego Health’s internal and board leadership want to secure financial support for “identified strategic priorities — all of which began to take shape before the … coronavirus pandemic disrupted health care globally,” the release stated.

The fundraising campaign is chaired by Ed Alberts, who also serves as chairman of the Oswego Health Foundation board of directors and as vice-chair of the Oswego Health board. Alberts, and his wife, Emily Alberts, are “longstanding” supporters of the health-care system. The couple has donated $250,000 to the fundraising effort, Oswego Health said.

Ed Alberts is an entrepreneur and business owner whose businesses include Rehab Resources, a provider of therapy care throughout upstate New York; Little Lukes Preschool and Childcare Center, with six CNY locations; the Riverwalk Apartments in Oswego; and WIRED Telecom, a company based in Oswego that specializes in wiring and IT systems for franchises.

Inpatient care

Oswego Health in early 2020 started work on a “complete renovation” of its medical-surgical unit. 

However, the coronavirus pandemic stopped construction with the increased need for patient beds “in the event of a [patient] surge.” With the eventual decline in COVID-19-hospitalized patients, Oswego Health has resumed construction. The project to renovate the third and fourth floors of Oswego Hospital will be complete by the end of 2021. 

Once finished, the floors will include 41 private rooms and four semi-private rooms. Each floor will also have areas where family members can gather. 

In addition, each patient room will be equipped with a new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) filtration system purchased through Healthway Family of Brands. Indigo-Clean, a new light technology will be installed in each patient bathroom to “continuously” disinfect the surfaces within the bathroom area. The technology is known to reduce pathogens by “nearly 99 percent, creating a greatly reduced chance of hospital-acquired infection and better patient outcome,” Oswego Health said.

Mental health and wellness

The Lakeview Center for Mental Health and Wellness opened in late January, which Oswego Health says is part of its work at “improving the mental health of CNY residents.”

As the “only” behavioral health services inpatient and outpatient provider in Oswego County, Oswego Health renovated 42,000 square feet of a former grocery store to include 32 inpatient beds. Primary-care services are also available onsite.

The mental-health care facility offering is in response to a “current, silent epidemic of those suffering with underfunded and inadequate services,” Oswego Health noted.