Residents of Oswayo Valley in Potter County will soon have a new, state-of-the-art health center with expanded services.
On Tuesday evening, officials from Cole Memorial Health Systems, headquartered in Coudersport, held a public meeting at the Oswayo Valley School in Shinglehouse to announce construction of an 8,300-square-foot facility that will house all of the Shinglehouse services in one building, and allow space for expansion.
Work is scheduled to begin this spring, with construction expected to take approximately six months. Officials have pledged the project would not affect patients and scheduling at the current Shinglehouse Health Center.
“This project is a visible symbol of our commitment to the Shinglehouse community and the Oswayo Valley and our appreciation of Sandy Barke, MD for his three decades of service to the residents of this area,” said Cole Memorial president and chief executive officer Ed Pitchford.
The new facility will be built on Puritan Avenue on the site of the former Hewitt Manor. Currently, patients have most of their appointments at 128 Lyons St., but physical therapy appointments are at a separate facility on Puritan Street.
The new building, estimated to cost $2.7 million, will house all of the Shinglehouse services under one roof. The new location will offer eight private examination rooms with one reserved for Bariatric patients; a comfortable and spacious waiting area; a diagnostic imaging room; secure medication area; a phlebotomy area; three offices for health care providers; and a diagnostic imaging facility.
Also new to the Shinglehouse office will be a telemedicine treatment area, which will also be used by rotating specialists brought into the area on a regular basis. Cole Memorial has partnered with UPMC Hamot in Erie to provide heart care services, among other uses.
Current staff members Dr. James “Sandy” Barke and Eric Schreiber, PA-C, will continue to serve patients at the new facility and will be joined by Shinglehouse Rehabilitation Services employees and several new specialty medicine providers.
The current Shinglehouse Health Center has been in operation for more than 35 years and serves approximately 2,000 patients, according to Cole Memorial’s media relations director Dawn Snyder.
“I remember when Charles Cole Memorial Hospital recruited Dr. Barke back in the late 1980s. We were executing a strategy of ensuring that all of the towns in our service area had access to primary care,” said Pitchford. “Now, it is such a pleasure for us to finally be able to provide the town of Shinglehouse, Dr. Barke and employees, a modern, spacious and comfortable place to provide and receive care.”
An invocation was given by the Rev. Rusty Horning of the Shinglehouse Baptist Church prior to the presentation. Remarks on the project were delivered by Cole Memorial’s executive director of community education and patient relations and Cole Foundation director Patrice Levavasseur, Cole’s Support Services executive director Tom Noe and Barke.
Cole Memorial is a modern, progressive rural non-profit health care provider serving all or parts of six counties in northcentral Pennsylvania and southcentral New York state. The Cole System consists of Cole Memorial, the Cole Memorial Medical Group and clinics, Home Health and Hospice, Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation, the Patterson Cancer Care Center and multiple specialties.
Cole Memorial partners with several regional referral centers, including UPMC Hamot and Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, with services accredited by The Joint Commission.
