St. Joseph’s formally opens Primary Care Center – West

SYRACUSE — St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center Wednesday formally opened its new and expanded primary-care center at 321 Gifford St. on Syracuse’s Near West Side. 

The facility, which was previously known as the Westside Family Health Center, is now called St. Joseph’s Primary Care Center – West, the hospital said in a news release.

The new 16,000-square-foot building replaces the previous 4,000-square-foot center, according to St. Joseph’s.

“This center will be one of the first of its kind in New York … to integrate in one place behavioral health, primary care, pediatric care, and obstetrical care,” Kathryn Ruscitto, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center, said in her remarks at the morning event.

In addition, the facility also provides access to onsite lab work, ultrasound and radiology services, and an onsite dietician and nutritional program, the hospital said.

The expanded center is located next door to Nojaims Supermarket.

The opening of the expanded Primary Care Center – West represents the culmination of an initiative to merge primary care and outpatient behavioral health at three sites, according to St. Joseph’s.

The effort seeks to improve access to care for the low-income, minority, immigrant, and refugee populations of Syracuse, the hospital said.

In conjunction with the opening, St. Joseph’s will relocate its Maternal/Child Health Center obstetric / gynecology services and pediatric office and move those patients to either the West location or to the main campus of St. Joseph’s Primary Care Center at 101 Union Ave. in Syracuse, the hospital said.

A third site is the St. Joseph’s Behavioral Health Center at 742 James St. in Syracuse, the hospital said.

St. Joseph’s secured state funding for the West expansion and associated-care consolidation through a Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law for New Yorkers (HEAL-NY) phase 11 grant, which included $4.9 million for the facility.

Schopfer Architects served as the project designer, and the Hayner Hoyt Corp. was the contractor on the project.

Crews started construction work in early 2013 and finished the project in December, the hospital said.

The new building officially opens to patients on Monday.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com