Hospital among the largest employer in the region. Expansion to require additional employees
By Mary Beth Roach
Work on the $14-million expansion at Oswego Health is ahead of schedule, according to Mike Backus, president and CEO.
The multi-phase project, announced in the fall of 2025, is focused on the 17,800 square feet of space on the first floor of Oswego Hospital and will include an expanded emergency department, upgrades in the medical imaging department and new safety initiatives.
“We’re making great progress. Our clinical teams have done a great job of working together with construction and contractors and third parties and we’ve tried to do it with as little interruption to patients as possible,” Backus said.
The hospital currently sees about 33,000 patients and hospital administration anticipates that number will increase with this new development and previous work done on the medical-surgical floors.
The main focus of the project is the emergency department and diagnostic services.
The improvements are the result of “the rising patient volume and increasing complexity of care have made improvements to both emergency and diagnostic services essential,” according to a statement from Oswego Health in announcing the project.
When Backus took over the health system in 2020 — right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — he said the hospital started to see an uptick in pediatric patients being treated in the dddemergency department, especially some pediatric patients with mental health challenges.
That challenge remains today, he said.
Some require inpatient admission to the Lobdell Center for Health and Wellness at Lakeview, but some don’t, so providing a safe place for these patients — children and adults — with access to educational or therapeutic materials was a motivator behind the expansion project, Backus said.
Another main feature of the project is the diagnostic imaging department.
Radiology has been a critical part of the health system, Backus said, and the expansion project will consolidate all imaging to the first floor. A new CT scanner will be added, upgrades will be made to the existing unit and there will be new rooms for X-ray, mammography, bone density, ultrasound and echocardiograms.
From a security perspective, Backus said he has long had the goal of a single point of access for the hospital, so once completed, visitors will enter a new centralized lobby area, where everyone will be issued a badge.
Backus acknowledged New York state and the many donors that helped to make the expansion possible.
The cost of care continues to go up, he said. “We have to, as a nonprofit, use every dollar wisely. Our community, philanthropic team and Oswego Health Foundation have done a tremendous job of raising dollars to help create a therapeutic environment for patients,” Backus said.
Those donors include the Shineman Foundation, Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, Stewart’s Shops, Fred L. Emerson Foundation, Jim & Juli Boeheim Foundation, Novelis, John Ben Snow Foundation, J. M. McDonald Foundation and an anonymous donor, along with support from the New York State Healthcare Facility Transformation Program Grant.
Backus also anticipates that with the expansion of the facility, there will be an expansion in the workforce as well. Oswego Health is already one of the largest private employers in Oswego County with more than 1,441 employees.
“I fully expect us to continue to hire robustly across just about every service line. We have openings. We worked hard here at culture and I think we have really done a great job of growing our team from within,” he said. “We can help invest in where you want to go as an employee.”
