November 30, 2016
HORNELL, NY – St. James hospital CEO Jennifer Sullivan and Communications Director Dustin Hewitt gave an update to the community Wednesday evening about the progress of the new hospital.
Sullivan and Hewitt confirmed that they have selected the old Kmart plaza as their new location and plan to renovate the current 135,000 square foot box shaped building into a campus like atmosphere.
Now, it’s just a matter of waiting for Albany’s approval on all the architectural plans. They hope the approval from Albany will be completed by 2017 so they can break ground and have set a tentative opening date by 2018.
9th Ward Alderman John Buckley asked, during a question and answer session, “What will happen to the old hospital and is there any possibility of having a maternity ward at the new facility?” On the first question Sullivan responded that at this time no determination has been made on the fate of the old hospital and she reminded people that it is still owned by Trinity Health.
On the second question Sullivan said that there are no plans for a maternity ward. One of the big factors in determining that was the lack of newborns in the city. Buckley persisted with the question by asking if there is even a slight chance it could be brought in in the future with Sullivan responding, “Although it’s not in the plans I guess anything is possible.”
