Infusacare moving up in the world

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Feb 25, 2005 by McChesney, Charles

NORTH SYRACUSE In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Robert A. Dracker ran infusion services for Upstate Medical Center. He had, he recalls, an idea to create, with Upstate, an outpatient center where people could come to get intravenous therapy.

As good as it seemed to him, he says, the idea did not catch on with Upstate administrators. "I had come up with the concept which the hospital never really backed," he says.

With the urging of his wife, a registered nurse, Dracker started Infusacare, Inc. 10 years ago. The specialty medical practice on Buckley Road in North Syracuse provides an array of I.V. therapy. Visitors can get everything from antibiotics to highdose steroid therapy, transfusion therapy to nutritional, fluid and electrolyte supplementation.

Dracker also has been growing the pediatric practice he purchased from a doctor with whom he worked after leaving SUNY Upstate. The practice, named North Area Pediatrics, has grown from one doctor to five doctors and six nurse practitioners at two sites. In addition, pediatric-office manager Warren Ford reports that the practice has 30 people on the support staff.

Maria Dracker, office manager for Infusacare and wife of Dr. Dracker, says Infusacare has eight staff members. "That's because a busy day at Infusacare, is 15 patients," she says. In contrast, the pediatric practice could see 250 patients a day.

Depending on the treatment needed, "some of our patients are here for several hours each," Mrs. Dracker says.

Growth in both the pediatric practice and Infusacare is behind the operation's planned move from 8,000 square feet of rented space the two businesses share at 6846 Buckley Road to a new 23,000-square-foot building being built on 10 acres of land the Drackers bought at 4811 Buckley Road in Clay. The new space, says Ford, will double the number of rooms for the pediatric practice to 22. It will also allow the businesses to. be more efficient, Dr. Dracker says.

Mrs. Dracker explains that the facility provides "outpatient ambulatory infusion," and stresses that, despite her husband's other practice, it is not limited to children. "We provide the service to both children and adults."

"The treatments are all done here at the facility, not [through] home care," she says.

Patients include those needing cuttingedge monoclonal therapy for multiplesclerosis and pregnant women with morning sickness who simply need to get fluids into their systems. Others need gamma globulin for immune deficiencies. And others come in for a 10-day run of antibiotics ("it has a bigger impact because it goes directly into the system, she says), when oral antibiotics aren't as effective.

All, she says, can be treated on an outpatient basis at Infusacare.

"It keeps them out of the hospital," explains Mrs. Dracker.

In addition, Infusacare is decorated with a "very residential feel," she says. With an oak-trimmed waiting room that looks much like a living room, including a grandfather clock, Mrs. Dracker says patients find the facility inviting. "A lot of patients will say they don't notice the medical equipment," she says.

The new facility, "will be even better" says Dr. Dracker. At 23,000 square feet, the one-story office being built by Westlake Construction of Syracuse will provide more space for Infusacare and the pediatric practice. Dr. Dracker says that the new facility is designed using what the Drackers have learned running the current offices. "We designed the space," he says.

Mrs. Dracker notes that the new building will have space for, among other things, a coffee bar. In addition the number of spaces available for those receiving therapy will grow from seven to 17.

Ford says Infusacare is expected to move into the new facility in early April, with the pediatric practice moving perhaps in the middle of that month.

When the move is made, the pediatric practice will change its name from North Area , Pediatrics to Surnmerwood Pediatrics North.

Dr. Dracker, who once had plans to build a medical campus in the town of Salina, tells that he came upon the site for the new facility while out with his wife. "We were just driving, trying to figure out where to do this," when he came upon the overgrown land not far from their home. He "walked the land" and, impressed, "decided to buy it."

In contrast to what happened with his earlier plan in Salina, Dr. Dracker says he found "[The Town of] Clay to be wonderful to work with."

The Drackers were represented by The Sutton Companies in the land deal. The total cost to put up a new building will be roughly between $2.5 million and $3 million, says Dr. Dracker. The Drackers are obtaining financing from KeyBank.