Schuyler Hospital expands medical-surgical unit

MONTOUR FALLS, N.Y. — Schuyler Hospital in Montour Falls, which is part of the Ithaca–based Cayuga Health system, has recently opened its new 15,000-square-foot medical-surgical inpatient unit.

The April 21 opening is the culmination of the first phase of a two-part construction project expected to be completed by later this year. The project was made possible by a $10.3 million New York Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program (SHCFTP) grant that was awarded in July 2017.

Schuyler Hospital has also recently restarted elective surgeries after the state eased restrictions put on the procedures in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are excited to open this new inpatient unit during our 100th anniversary year. While this year has not gone as planned based on COVID-19, we have been able to keep our project on-track with our patients and our community in mind,” Rebecca Gould, president and CFO of Schuyler Hospital, said. “These improvements provide a new and enhanced healing environment and state-of-the-art technology that will allow our hospital’s staff to give more coordinated care and provide our patients and their families with the comfort and support that they need. We designed these improvements to meet our patients’ needs now and into the future.”

The new medical-surgical unit includes 12 large, single rooms and four semi-private beds. Improved monitoring allows nurses to check each patient’s status from a central station and quickly respond to monitor alerts detecting changes in a patient’s condition. The new design includes an open central space that gives nurses an unobstructed view to private patient rooms located along the unit’s perimeter.

The second phase includes the renovation of the former medical-surgical unit into a 9,185-square-foot new primary care center — a 53 percent expansion — that is “telehealth enabled and will offer improved care coordination,” Schuyler Hospital contends. This move will “enhance” patient care by locating the primary-care clinic to the front of the building and adjacent to the specialty clinic and improve interdisciplinary coordination for treatment plans.

“Having primary care in our main building, and under one roof, will be a great convenience to our patients,” Matthew Rouff, executive director of outpatient and support services at Schuyler Hospital and the project’s manager, said. “When patients see their physicians and get an order for bloodwork or x-rays, they only have to walk a few steps to get the tests done that day in the same building.”