The Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic, operated by Rochester Regional Health, has added resources and programs aimed at improving health care for women in a rural part of the Finger Lakes region.
Dustin Riccio, president of the health care provider’s eastern region, which includes Clifton Springs, said the renovations are happening around the core of a building that has existed in the Ontario County village since the mid-1800s.
“We don’t want people going up to Rochester General to have their gynecological surgery. We don’t want them going up to Rochester General for their prenatal care,” Riccio said. “We want to bring those services to them, where they live.”
Riccio said in some cases, the hospital is bringing back services that were once offered in the area but were lost to consolidation.
“Some hospitals in urban areas are overwhelmed right now,” Riccio said. “This lets us take that pressure off, and provide more care locally.”
Riccio said when medical services were expanded at Newark-Wayne Community Hospital, mortality rates decreased. He said that’s evidence that putting health care in the communities where people live does improve health outcomes.
The renovation budget is $32 million, funded by a grant and matching contributions from the health care system and the hospital itself, Rochester Regional said.
The next phases of the renovation will focus on building more operating rooms and expanding behavioral health services, Riccio said.
“Our catchment area for behavioral health is enormous,” Riccio said. “All the way from Syracuse down to the Southern Tier.”
