News

August 31, 2000

CORNING HOSPITAL WILL BUILD WELLNESS & FITNESS CENTER

Officials from Corning Hospital/Founders Pavilion and Guthrie Healthcare System today confirmed that conceptual design plans are being developed to build a medically-based wellness and fitness center in the Town of Erwin - the first of its kind in central New York

Hospital officials are now initiating a series of local and state approval processes, including application to the Town of Erwin Planning Board and application for a New York State Certificate of Need (CON).

The facility will house a comprehensive and diverse mix of services to maximize convenience and access for its consumers.

Services included in the project's conceptual design include:

• physical rehabilitation and sports medicine services;
• wellness services, such as weight management and stress management;
• alternative therapies: yoga, acupuncture, and massage therapy;
• women's health services, such as primary care, breast care and osteoporosis services, counseling for women, and a women's health education program;
• physician offices;
• chronic disease management services,
• a state-of-the-art fitness center, with lap pool, therapy pools, dedicated cardiovascular and resistance training areas and more; and,
• child care while participants are at the center.

Tim Dentry, Corning Hospital/Founders Pavilion President/CEO, described the plan as "an important, future-thinking consumer-focused way to enhance healthcare services to the community."

"The benefits of this cutting edge wellness combination to area healthcare residents will be clear and direct," said Dentry.

Healthcare consumer benefits include:

• customized fitness programs with measurable goals that can be tracked to monitor progress;
• convenient location at the corner of Robert Dann Drive and Lynn Morse Drive in Erwin;
• easy access;
• availability of immediate on-site individual counseling with healthcare professionals;
• health and wellness screening which identifies specific ways in which the center member can improve his or her health;
• convenience for the consumer, with fitness, wellness, diagnostic and therapeutic services coordinated under one roof; and,
• early detection of health risks.

Steve Albertalli, President of the Corning Hospital/Founders Pavilion Board of Directors, credited the affiliation with Guthrie Healthcare System as critical to the development and delivery of such cutting edge services. "Corning Hospital envisions building on our current services to create a regional health and wellness center. We plan to maximize our very successful and well utilized wellness programs by creating an opportunity to coordinate clinical wellness and fitness services. This wellness and fitness center really begins to actualize that dream," Albertalli said.

Mark Stensager, President & CEO, Guthrie Healthcare System, commented that, "We're very excited to be partnering with Corning Hospital on this project. This is a wonderful example of what can be accomplished by Corning Hospital and Guthrie working closely together and collaborating to improve the health and well-being of the community. The wellness and fitness center will be a first of its kind for the region and will be of tremendous value to the community."

The wellness and fitness is a part - and the first major step - of the Corning Hospital/Founders Pavilion's five year plan to further establish itself as a center of healthcare excellence. Dentry described the hospital's vision as "a brand new outlook on the way we serve our community. We are becoming more consumer oriented and responsive to the changing life-styles of people of our region, based on listening to our consumers."

"Our overall long term goal," Dentry added, "is twofold:

• to develop specific healthcare services, based on market research and consumer identified needs,
• which are delivered to our community in such a way that we not only meet those needs, but also surpass the expectations of those we serve."

All members of the community will have access to fitness club membership as well as to rehabilitation and wellness programs and services. Hospital officials expect the service to be affordable and to provide significant value to a diverse membership. Participants in the facility's services are expected to range from the very healthy and fit person seeking ongoing fitness and wellness support, to the chronically ill person utilizing wellness, fitness and complementary services to return to health, to the acutely injured person seeking rehabilitation.

"The medical model enables us to provide high quality services for a healthy population, and it also ensures our ability to reach out to those who experience less than optimal health, to provide them a full and convenient range of resources to build good health, and then transition them into a fitness model to maintain their health gains," said Dentry.

Wellness and fitness services will both improve and maintain existing good health. Wellness and rehab programs will bring clients to a high level of good health and well being, from a state of compromised health or injury, in a supportive environment which brings appropriate and comprehensive disciplines to the patient -as opposed to sending the recovering patient to some wide variety of geographically distant services, treatments and therapies.

Pending approvals, the facility should open its doors to the public in autumn of 2001.