Rome Health continues work to centralize, modernize facilities

ROME, N.Y. — Rome Health is continuing the transformation it began about two years ago when it changed its name from Rome Memorial Hospital to Rome Health.

The name more accurately reflects the breadth of services the organization provides, COO Ryan Thompson says, and Rome Health continues to work to make sure its facilities adequately support those services.

“It’s very exciting to watch us transform as a health system,” he says.

That transformation kicked off with an $11.3 million project, completed last November, to renovate the Rome Health Medical Center, located at 1500 James St., and bring together services that were previously spread out.

“We’ve co-located services together,” Thompson says. “This is where the majority of medical imaging takes place.” The 31,000-square-foot, two-story medical center gives patients better access to primary care with other services, such as cardiology, located nearby.

“We also have our community pharmacy ... right in the medical center,” he adds. The pharmacy also opened last November. Along with providing medication for hospital patients, the pharmacy provides a convenient option for patients to get prescriptions filled following an appointment.

The changes are all about driving convenience for the patient, Thompson notes, but also factor in provider and staff needs as well. “It was a team that built it together.”

Rome Health also just cut the ribbon on its new women’s surgical services suite located on the fourth floor adjacent to the maternity department. While maternity services have been great, there was no getting around the fact that women who ended up needing a c-section had to be brought in an elevator to the first-floor operating rooms, Thompson says.

Now, those needing surgery travel just a short way down the hall. “It’s going to be a much better experience for the moms,” he says.

Rome Health received a $3 million grant from Oneida County’s American Rescue Plan Act funding for the project. Work on the women’s surgical suite began last September and it will be fully open in June.

This fall, Rome Health expects to break ground on a $30 million project to build four new operating rooms to replace ones that have been in use for more than 57 years. It will use $26 million in state health care facility transformation grant funds for the project.

“We just wanted to modernize surgical services,” Thompson says. The new rooms will be larger and contain the electrical systems necessary for advancements in medical technology such as robotics.

With surgical volume increasing 26 percent between 2020 and 2021, the need is great. The hospital has seen growth in general surgery as well as weight-loss surgery, and spine surgery. “We’re currently in the design phase,” Thompson says, with hopes to start work in late fall.

When the new operating rooms are complete, Rome Health will transform the old operating rooms into pre- and post-operating room space.

“As things continue to evolve and change, you want to be able to evolve and change with that,” Thompson says. Modernizing Rome Health’s facilities to offer new technology means Rome residents won’t have to travel to Utica or Syracuse to receive care. “We’re redefining what community-based health care is to our community.”

“People want and need their health care to be delivered locally,” he says. “It needs to be convenient to them.”

The nonprofit Rome Health provides everything from primary care to specialty care to patients. It is an affiliate of St. Joseph’s Health and an affiliated clinical site of New York Medical College.