With the addition, HOA is projecting an increase in patient volumes of 30%
By Stefan Yablonski
Hematology-Oncology Associates of CNY outgrew its Onondaga Hill location.
“Today was our first day of seeing patients in our new facility,” said Maryann Roefaro, CEO, on Sept.16. “It was the first day of operations in our new place.”
HOA moved into the new 21,000- square-foot comprehensive cancer center in Camillus, at 5490 Cobbler Way. It not only replaces and expands upon the previous site — it offers room for future expansion. There is more parking available as well.
HOA will host a community open house at the new center from 4-7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 17. The official ribbon cutting is set for 4:30 p.m., Roefaro added.
With the addition of the Camillus office, HOA is projecting an increase in new patients and patient volumes of 30%.
“It took a while to buy the land and plan it all. The construction took probably like 18 months,” Roefaro said. “Construction began in spring 2023.”
“We’ve been around for 42 years. Our main building is in Brittonfield Parkway in East Syracuse and it’s a 65,000 square foot facility,” she added. “We (have) had another — adjacent to Upstate at Community General Hospital which was 13,000 square feet. We will be selling that to Upstate; they own the land. In addition, we have a practice in Auburn and a wellness center in Camillus.”
People are finding their way around the new place.
“Really, it’s very easy — you walk in [and] radiation is straight ahead, medical oncology is to the right. The waiting room is kind of like the hub of everything so patients don’t have to walk very far,” she said. “It’s really beautiful. I am so happy with how it came out.”
At the new site, there will be three full-time medical oncologist-hematologist physicians. Also, one radiation oncologist physician. (The radiation oncologist position rotates. But there is a radiation oncologist onsite every day).
“We have 20 physicians and about probably close to 30 nurse practitioners, physician assistants and then we have a total of about 320 employees, maybe 350. It’s a big place,” Roefaro said. “We’ll have about 35 employees over in our Camillus site — three full-time doctors and we might have some other physicians that come in and out. It’s a full-service comprehensive site.”
The facility will have radiation oncology, medical oncology, 29 little cubicles for infusion (including noncancer infusion) and more.
“It’s a comprehensive site and we are very excited to be in that area,” Roefaro said.
“Our number of cancer patients grows every year by at least 10%,” she added.
There are a number of new treatments, so cancer is becoming like a chronic disease, she noted.
“People are living longer; we have a lot more treatments available,” she said. “It’s transitioning to more of a chronic disease rather than an acute.
“We are serving people longer. You’ve got to be able to have the manpower to be able to see those patients and also new patients every year; it’s not like the number goes down. We continue to see — even in light of all the new preventions — we continue to see a fair amount of new patients.”
Success
“I guess our success is being the provider of choice. When people are diagnosed, we see the majority; we see about 70% of the CNY adult cancer market,” she said. “Our patient satisfaction scores are extremely high.”
HOA also has a very high retention rate for its employees.
“You can’t look on your success as how many patients are cured, how many died. We don’t look at that kind of stuff,” she explained. “We look at our quality indicators; we have a lot of benchmarks that we look at and we measure ourselves on that.
“Our goal is to offer the highest level, state-of-the-art technology and treatments, while meeting the emotional needs of our patients and their families. There is the individual success of patients, their ability to resolve their cancer illness and live normal lives that’s for sure one success. But we don’t really measure that.
“I like to say we’re an employer and a provider — that’s how I measure success. I think we are successful; we have been doing this for 42 years. We have a wonderful culture here.”
HOA has social workers, support groups and more.
“It takes a village, a lot of people and infrastructure to do a good job. It’s not just about physical — it’s physical emotional and spiritual. We want to do a good job and we want to do it for the person in their entirety. It’s not just about treating the cancer — it’s about treating the person,” she said.
“Our mission is really for the mind, body and spirit for patients dealing with cancer. Those three components are everything.”
Services Provided at the Camillus Facility
Continuing HOA’s commitment to provide patients with holistic and personalized cancer care that is state-of-the-art, comprehensive and convenient, the new center offers the following services under one roof:
• Medical cancer care, including Infusion Services for cancer and other non-oncology needs
• Radiation cancer care
• Care for blood disorders (hematology)
• Wellness center offering holistic care and classes for cancer patients and the community
• Medical imaging
• Nutritional counseling
• Counseling for patients and caregivers
• Clinical research
• Laboratory services
• Medication services
• Thoracic cancer care
• Cancer survivorship program
• Supportive oncology care
• Lung cancer screening
• High-risk cancer screening
• Family cancer genetics program
• Smoking cessation program
For more information visit hoacny.com