Come Monday, Nov. 5, two important openings and one major closing will occur on the same day: Patient Discharge and the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center’s main entrance will each move to new locations; street access to the Crittenden traffic loop (including our Crittenden-side Wilmot Cancer entrance) will close. These relocations help make way for construction of the new Golisano Children’s Hospital building, scheduled to begin in March 2013. 

The moves are expected to affect hospital inpatients, ambulatory outpatients being picked up, James P. Wilmot Cancer Center patients, Cardiac Cath Lab patients, and Medical Center service providers and vendors.

If you would like to stay on top of last-minute changes, please make sure to visit our Children’s Hospital Construction Update page – located at URMC Today – and the intranet on the left-hand side of the page (in red). The page is a public site and can be viewed from outside the Medical Center. It contains maps and detailed information for staff, patients and families and vendors.

Closings Slated for Nov. 5

The Crittenden Boulevard traffic loop will be fenced off at street level on Nov. 5 to accommodate demolition and construction.

The fenced-off area starts just beyond the Radiation Oncology entrance, and continues west to the entrance of the Flaum Eye Institute parking lot 19. Crews will board up a portion of Strong Memorial Hospital’s inside lobby to ensure patient, visitor and employee safety during the construction period; even so, inside hallways connecting the Cancer Center with our main hospital lobby will remain open. The Radiation Oncology entrance (located directly off of Crittenden) will remain accessible from the street and parking Lot 21. These patients will not be affected.

To help navigate in the midst of these entrance closures/openings, Cath Lab patients will be given special instructions and maps to help them find their way to appointments.

Opening Nov. 5

Our new, permanent Patient Discharge will open right inside the doors of the new Patient Discharge loop. The loop, accessible by East Drive, runs parallel to Elmwood and Crittenden.

The Cancer Center entrance also will move (temporarily) to a second traffic loop on East Drive, just alongside the Patient Discharge loop. Once the new Children’s Hospital is completed, the Cancer Center’s main, Crittenden entrance will reopen, again becoming accessible from a revised Crittenden-side loop.

Additional reminders

You can find this information (and more!) under our Children Hospital Construction Impact page. Still, we’d like to emphasize the following:

• All personal staff drop-offs and pickups should take place at the School of Medicine and Dentistry entrance. Bringing goodies for the office, so your spouse is dropping you off at the door? Use the School of Medicine traffic loop. There is a convenient spot where drivers can pull up, just north of the big, glass doors. Staff punching in should check with their supervisors regarding appropriate card-swipe locations.
• Come Nov. 5, plan for all flower deliveries and staff food deliveries to go to our new Patient Discharge. Approved food vendors have received written communication from URMC; we’ll also be handling our reminder fliers to some smaller vendors as we see them (feel free to share with smaller companies your team uses routinely). Staff should note that when placing a food order, please make sure the delivery person has your contact number and be prepared to meet them at the designated location.
• RTS has a new bus stop at the Jackson Drive (Elmwood-side) hospital entrance. Please take a moment to check out information about revised staff shuttle routes and RTS bus stop locations. The Parking Office likely will continue adjusting staff shuttle schedules as the needs arise, so be sure to check the intranet’s Children Hospital Construction Updates page for any changes.

Have questions or concerns?

These projects involve moving pieces and require cooperation across multiple Medical Center departments. Even though we’re working hard to ensure that these transitions move forward with as few hiccups as possible, we want to arm you with contact information for reporting problems or issues as they arise.

• Patient- or visitor-related issues should be reported to the Department of Social Work at 275-2851.
• Parking-related issues should be directed to Patricia Hudson at the Parking Office at 275-4524.
• Vendor, supplier or delivery issues should go to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  at 275-8996.

Tips or information of interest to the "whole house” – that can be posted to our URMC Today “Construction Impact” site to help smooth the transition – can be sent to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .