LOWVILLE ? Despite some delays, Lewis County General Hospital officials hope a long-awaited renal dialysis center will be in place later this year or early next year.

The state Department of Health has approved a certificate of need for DaVita Inc., Buffalo, to operate a dialysis clinic on the hospital?s North State Street campus. However, the county-owned hospital is waiting for the company to sign on a Utica-based doctor as the clinic?s medical director before entering a lease agreement, hospital CEO Eric R. Burch said Monday during a joint meeting of county legislators and hospital managers.

?They were confident they were going to get him signed,? he said.

Hospital officials plan to build a roughly $1 million addition off the Medical Arts Building?s first floor and basement to accommodate the dialysis center. However, they want to have a signed lease with DaVita before sending requests for construction bids, Mr. Burch said.

Even if there isn?t enough time to complete construction this year, the hope is that at least a shell of the addition is done, allowing interior work to be done next winter, he said.

Hospital officials tentatively plan a groundbreaking ceremony May 12 in conjunction with their annual Community Health Awareness Day.

Mr. Burch also said Watertown nephrologist Dr. Khalid P. Sindhu plans to have office hours here one day per week and use the dialysis clinic, if and when it is completed.

Legislator Philip C. Hathway, R-Harrisville, asked if DaVita?s lease payments would cover the cost of construction. Mr. Burch said they would.

Martinsburg resident Edward Ingersoll in 2005 presented to county legislators a petition signed by more than 2,000 people requesting dialysis services here.

Legislators in both 2006 and 2007 supported certificate of need submissions that would have allowed Renal Care of Northern New York, Watertown, to set up a dialysis operation here, but those plans never came to fruition.

Faxton-St. Luke?s Healthcare, Utica, in fall 2009 submitted another certificate of need application. However, by the time the project received state approval, Faxton-St. Luke?s officials had decided not to move forward, leaving local officials searching for another partner. They found one last year in DaVita, a company based in Denver that operates similar centers throughout the country.

Up to 30 Lewis County residents receive dialysis treatments in either Watertown or Utica, Mr. Burch has said. Dialysis patients typically undergo four-hour treatments three days each week.

The Lewis County Hospital Foundation over the past two Saturdays held its third annual bowling tournament to benefit the dialysis project. The tournament, held at Lewis Lanes, raised about $2,900, and proceeds are expected to total nearly $4,000 when money from an accompanying auction is figured in, according to foundation Executive Director Timothy W. O?Connor.

Mr. Burch also reported Monday that the hospital is awaiting state approval on certificates of need to take over operation of the Harrisville medical clinic now run by Carthage Area Hospital and to take over hospice and home health care programs from the Lewis County Public Health Agency.

Hospital officials also continue to work on a plan to convert three unused classrooms at Copenhagen Central School for a health clinic and hope to meet soon with Dierdre K. Scozzafava, deputy secretary of state for local government, to see if state funding would be available, Mr. Burch said. Given all the needed approvals, however, that project probably would not come to fruition until at least next year, he said.

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