D’Youville College in Buffalo is ready to embark on constructing a Health Professions HUB. D’Youville announced it is the recipient of a $5-million HECap State grant. WBFO’s senior reporter Eileen Buckley says the higher education grant will help kick off funding for the $20-million facility that will provide training to students in healthcare and include a community clinic for the undeserved.
“The largest single award D’Youville has ever received,” declared D'Youville President Lorrie Clemo.
Clemo said the HUB will provide training and education for students while also serving as a community clinic for the underserved.
“The HUB will changes lives – literally – by producing well-trained healthcare professionals for the future. The HUB will be an important step to mitigate healthcare shortages, meeting patient-center needs in Western New York and beyond,” Clemo explained.
The HUB will be constructed next to the D'Youville campus on the corner of Connecticut and West Avenue.
Maureen Finney is Dean of D'Youvill's School of Health Professionals. Finney said the vision is to be 'innovative and collaborative' and provided needed wrap-around care for patients.
WBFO News asked her for the profile of those who would receive medical care at the clinic.
“The scenario that I love to give is I’m a physical assistant by training – a patient comes to see me and has diabetes and I know what to do with them, get them shored up, but I also know they need to see a dietician, they need to see a pharmacist, they need to see a physical therapist in order to optimize patient outcomes – so that complete wrap-around care is going to happen right here within the HUB,” Finney said.
Finney says the HUB will be state-of-the-art.
“This community has significant health issues. The chronic disease rates, the morbidity and the mortality of chronic disease rates in this zip code are higher than in New York State,” Finney noted.
The HUB will also provide programs for existing healthcare professionals to keep up with changes in the healthcare industry.
Joining D'Youville in Monday's announcement were Charles Urlaub, D’Youville Board of Trustees Chairperson and President/CEO, Mercy Hospital of South Buffalo, State Senator Tim Kennedy, also an alum of D'Youville, State Senator Chris Jacobs, State Assemblyman Sean Ryan and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown.
D'Youville must still raise another $15-million for construction of the facility, but Clemo says they plan to break ground next summer.
“So our funding efforts will take place over the next year. We’re going to start construction about this time next year and our hope is still to be on our timeline of opening the bulding of September of 2020,” Clemo answered.