The former Lakeside Hospital in Brockport, closed since April, came alive Tuesday, September 3 with new state-of-the-art technology, newly remodeled rooms, and the return of some nurses and technical staff who had served at Lakeside. It was the opening of URMC’s Strong West campus and Strong Urgent Care Center. Adding to an atmosphere of anticipation, medical professionals from the University of Rochester Medical Center were there overseeing the start-up of the new medical services.
The center will provide health care services to patients of all ages who require immediate treatment of non-life-threatening issues such as sprains, broken bones, cuts, fevers and ear infections. The facility provides on-the-spot diagnostic services such as X-rays, EKGs and strep tests. No appointments are necessary. Current center hours are noon to 7 p.m. each day. Also opening on Tuesday were imaging services – ultrasound, mammography, MRI and CT — as well as walk-in lab service. Out-patient imaging is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. A free-standing emergency department is expected in early 2014, pending state approval. An ambulatory surgical center also is planned for 2014.
The new Urgent Care Center is located in the former Lakeside’s emergency department. Dr. Mike Kamali reviewed improvements made to the area, including freshly painted walls and new lighting. A major addition is a waiting room just off the nurses’ station, visible through an open window. “We like to get incoming patients to a bed as soon as possible,” Dr. Kamali said. “When it gets crowded, we want those waiting to be as close as possible to be able to observe them.”
Dr. Kamali is chair of Emergency Medicine at the University of Rochester, and is located at Strong Hospital. He has made many visits to organize the new facility and will continue in the next few weeks. “We know there will be bumps in the road,” he said.
“That’s why we have a lot of people here so we can smooth out those bumps and make sure things are going well for patients.”
Strong West currently has several former Lakeside Hospital nurses employed. Anne-Marie “Corky” Dailey was pleased to be back again. “Generations of area families were taken care of here,” she said. “We are grateful to be back at it.” Interviews are being conducted to fill more positions. It is not determined how many staff will be needed for Urgent Care or a possible future emergency department, Dr. Kamali said. “That will be fluid as we see how many patients are utilizing the services.”
A major improvement presented by Strong Hospital is the state-of-the-art imaging technology available for the Urgent Care Center and for community physicians. “We have modernized all the technology in this hospital and brought it up to digital standards,” said Dr. David Waldman, chairman of Imaging Sciences at the URMC. “We have done this at other hospitals, too, such as Highland and Thompson,” he said.
The new digital mammography machine, for instance, shows great advances from the film based machine it replaced, said Mary-Ellen Wilson, off-site manager from Strong Hospital (see photo). Instead of darkroom slow processing, the digital image is read immediately by the technologist; if no adjustments are need, the machine compression automatically releases. Mammograms will immediately be read by Strong’s specialists in the mammography center at Red Creek.
All digital images – ultrasound, X-rays, mammography, CT scans, and MRI scans — are viewed on monitors at the Urgent Care Center (see photo) and forwarded to the appropriate specialist within the Strong system for analysis, Dr. Waldman said. He will be on site many days “to make sure the imaging procedures are running smoothly,” he said.
In addition to Strong Urgent Care in Brockport, URMC Strong West consists of Strong Urgent Care in Spencerport, primary care practices in LeRoy and Brockport, and orthopaedic and cardiac specialists who have existing practices in Brockport. URMC Strong West provides health care services to the Brockport area, western Monroe County and the eastern portion of Orleans and Genesee counties.
Photos by Dianne Hickerson
9/8/13
