Strong West ED Opens After Receiving State DOH Approval

 The New York State Department of Health has granted approval for an off-campus Emergency Department (ED) at UR Medicine’s Strong West site in Brockport, making it the first such model in Upstate New York. The current urgent care center switched over to become Strong West Emergency at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19.

The long-awaited approval means a return of higher-level, 24-hour emergency care to the Brockport area, which has lacked emergency services since Lakeside Memorial Hospital closed in spring 2013.

UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial Hospital has worked closely with New York State DOH since last summer, submitting plans to develop an off-campus ED. This unique health care model has been adopted by several other downstate institutions.

Off-campus EDs are designed to offer acute emergency care for patients and are open around the clock, seven days a week. Unlike urgent care centers, these EDs can accept patients brought in by ambulance (urgent care sites, by law, cannot) and are staffed by a physician 24 hours a day. The change-over of Strong West’s current urgent care to an ED will mean that, for the first time in more than a year, Brockport-area patients with more serious conditions can receive the medical treatment they need.

Because off-campus EDs have no in-patient hospital beds – Strong West will have three short-term observation beds – patients who require more intensive care and hospitalization will be treated and transferred to UR Medicine’s Strong Memorial or Highland Hospital or a hospital the patient chooses.

Strong West Urgent Care will remain open through Tuesday morning, with staff – including an Emergency Medicine physician – on site 24 hours a day.