US Senator Charles E Schumer has announced an unprecedented US$35 million loan for a one-of-a-kind children’s hospital, The Center for Discovery (TCFD). The hospital will be funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Rural Development’s Community Facilities Program and will allow for New York’s first short-term inpatient assessment program for children with complex conditions to begin construction, creating over 400 healthcare jobs and 150 construction jobs in Sullivan County while improving access to quality care and services for Upstate New York’s most vulnerable. The governor explained that through its groundbreaking research, the Children’s Specialty Hospital, scheduled to start construction this June, will provide comprehensive, clinical assessments to diagnose underlying physiological, medical, and mental health problems.
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The hospital will create targeted treatments and interventions for children and adolescents to receive care that allows them to remain in their homes, saving the state millions each year by reducing the need for long-term residential care. Furthermore, the senator said that the project will include an Education Academy to expand TCFD’s existing programs with 853 special education schools. Construction supported by the USDA investment announced today will include new classrooms, accessible bathrooms, a full-service kitchen, dining hall, gymnasium, athletic fields, a traffic circulation system for school buses, and paved walking and biking paths for physical education and recreation.
By building this critical infrastructure, TCFD will serve 60 additional students from surrounding communities while building on its preexisting relationships with 250 school districts. Schumer said that the new hospital will create a nationwide model transforming the standard of care for those with complex conditions right here in Upstate New York.
“From day one of this pandemic, I have worked with The Center for Discovery to make sure they had all the federal resources necessary to continue providing high quality care for their vulnerable patients with complex disabilities,” said Senator Schumer.
