Roswell Park, Oneida Healthcare announce anonymous $1M donation to capital campaign

ONEIDA, N.Y. — Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo and Oneida Healthcare say an anonymous donor has contributed a $1 million to their joint $12 million capital campaign.

This donation and others will help pay for a three-phase project that will provide Central New York residents with expanded access to Roswell Park’s “National Cancer Institute (NCI)-level cancer care,” Oneida Healthcare said in a Thursday news release.

The project

In the first phase of the campaign, Oneida Healthcare and Roswell Park opened a new infusion center in Madison County in the fall of 2017. The project was part of a medical-oncology affiliation with Roswell Park.

It includes 12 infusion suites, four clinical-exam rooms, a telemedicine-conference center, and a consultation room.

The second phase involves the Dorothy G. Griffin Radiation Oncology Center in Oneida, which crews will complete in June of this year as a “joint effort” between the two health-care providers.

The final phase will be the expansion of Oneida Healthcare’s imaging services with the installation of a new equipment, including a second 3D mammography unit, at the Alice M. Gorman Imaging Center.

All three services will be available on the Oneida Healthcare campus.

“The support of our generous donors continues to play a vital role in providing access to the highest quality of care, close to home,” Gene Morreale, president and CEO of Oneida Healthcare, said in the release. “With the continued growth of our oncology program and the expansion of our outpatient-imaging services, we will be able to provide patients with state-of-the-art diagnostics, local access to NCI cancer-care guidelines, and to the latest treatment options from a comprehensive cancer center ranked among the top 3 percent nationwide. Without our generous donors, this would not be possible.”

Oneida Healthcare serves an area comprised of about 29 communities in Madison and western Oneida counties with a population of about 100,000.

Operated by the nonprofit Oneida Health Systems, Inc., the organization includes a 101-bed acute-care hospital; emergency department; surgery center; 160-bed extended-care and short-term rehab facility; primary-care offices; internal medicine; lab services; home medical equipment; imaging services; and outpatient therapy.

Fundraising effort

The anonymous donation follows a $250,000 gift made to the campaign by Community Bank N.A. and Oneida Savings Bank Charitable Foundation in late 2018, to be given across five years and help cover renovations, construction and leading-edge technology in the new facilities. Community Bank N.A. is providing $100,000 of that figure, while the Oneida Savings Bank Charitable Foundation will contribute the additional $150,000, per the release.

When combined with the donations from the banks, other philanthropic contributions, and a $6.75 million grant that the New York State Department of Health awarded in 2016, the $1 million anonymous donation brings the total raised for the campaign to more than $10 million of its $12 million goal.

“Expanding the reach of our care to Madison County is vital to our mission, and I want to express our thanks to this generous anonymous donor for helping make it possible,” Candace Johnson, president and CEO of Roswell Park, said. “Having this kind of nearby access to Roswell Park’s nationally recognized cancer care will mean all the difference to Central New York patients who otherwise would have to travel three to four hours each way to Buffalo for their treatment. I am grateful to everyone who has given to this campaign and brought us to this point.”

Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, the center bearing his name is the “only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York,” per the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com