The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
Hospital brings innovation, new tech to community
Wound care, cancer treatments, infusions and elder care just some of what Oneida Healthcare offers
ONEIDA, N.Y. » Oneida Healthcare has made leaps and strides over the last year to provide better care and services to the community.
Beginning in December 2017, Oneida Healthcare opened the Oneida Healthcare and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. The surgical oncology clinic provides a number of services to cancer patients in the greater Oneida area without driving out of town.
Surgical consultations, preoperative evaluations and postoperative follow ups are available for patients with gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary cancers.
“We just hired a full-time hematologist and oncologist. That was a big domino to fall andthat will allow us to see patients fulltime in our infusion suite,” Director of Marketing & Public Relations Kevin J. Prosser said.
The infusion suite on the top floor of the cancer care building has 12 infusion chairs. Each chair is designed to provide a number of treatments including chemotherapy, biotherapy, blood transfusions and other infusion treatments. They also come with a tablet, providing patients with said. Internet access and free movies.
Phase one of the cancer care center is complete, Prosser said, and now Oneida Healthcare is starting phase two of its threephase project. The hospital is looking to open a radiation on--
cology building to offer more treatment options by the fall of 2018 and spring 2019 at the latest Oneida Healthcare also opened both a Podiatry Care Center and a Vascular Care Center in January 2018 to offer patients more specialized care services. Doctor of Podiatric Medicine Kevin Crable specializes in the management of wound care, diabetic foot infection and limb salvage at Oneida Healthcare, and treats every foot health concern, from osteoarthritis, general pain, tendinitis and flat feet. Doctor Robert Carlin is a fellowship-trained and American board- certified vascular surgeon with more than 25 years of experience. With his team, Carlin provides care for a number of conditions, including varicose veins, peripheral arterial disease and peripheral arterial aneurysm. Prosser said these new services offered by Oneida Healthcare are starting to pick up speed and both Crable and Carlin see a number of patients in the Oneida area. Oneida Healthcare also has a number of ongoing projects, such as the Seneca Fields Apartments under construction and management of Two Plus Four Construction. The development is being built on the Oneida Healthcare campus across the road from St. Patrick’s Cemetery and will provide 32 apartment units for those ages 55 and up whose income is below 60 percent of the area median income. Five will be reserved for those within-comes below 30 percent of the area median income. “We own the property behind the YMCA and through a grant from New York state, we can pay for a care coordinator who will help manage the care of displaced residents from our Extended Care Facility,” Prosser Some residents in the ECF need to be discharged home, but whether because of financial, personal or health and safety reasons, they’re left without a
place to go and stay in the facility.
“This will allow Oneida Healthcare to move these residents who can’t be discharged, into the affordable housing unit and the care coordinator will help those individuals remain independent as long as possible,” Prosser said. “Otherwise, these individuals end up remaining in a high level of care at our ECF. And the cost of care can be more than what they need.”
Besides bringing in the new, Oneida Healthcare is also upgrading a number of systems.
“We’re looking to do some upgrades with our imaging. We’re looking at acquiring a new MRI and a PET CT scanner,” Prosser said. “That way, the oncology patients we’re seeing can get the imaging they need right here in Oneida rather than travel out of town.”
Oneida Healthcare has already installed a new 128-slice CT scanner to its Imaging Service Department. The new device is supposed to reduce patient radiation exposure by 30 to 50 percent while producing a clearer image.
“One of the things we’re projecting to open is a wound care facility. We’re going through the process to see if it is possible for Oneida Healthcare to facilitate it,” Prosser said.
Oneida Healthcare is currently partnering with a company called Restorix that specializes in diabetic wound care. Those with diabetes find it harder than normal to heal from injuries and the wound care facility would give them the opportunity to meet with providers and heal faster than on their own, Prosser said.
These treatments would range from hyperbaric oxygen therapy, specialized wound dressing, vascular testing and more.
There are a few obstacles that Oneida Healthcare currently faces, Prosser said. Where the facility would go, the technology and facilities available and if it meets the needs of the patients are just some of the things being considered.
“There’s a decent amount going on at Oneida Healthcare. We’re pretty tied up,” Prosser said.