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May 21, 2006
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May 21, 2006
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| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
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BY SARA LINDAU: Staff Writer A cream and green hotel-like structure that has risen up just beyond the FirstHealth Center for Health and Fitness in Pinehurst might seem too big to be just an office for a medical practice.
Pinehurst Surgical has invested more than $28 million in a new, sprawling, state-of-the-art building in FirstVillage, across from Moore Regional Hospital.
The building has new diagnostic equipment, sophisticated digital electronic infrastructure, laboratories, testing rooms, and medical offices.
Pinehurst Surgical is the largest private surgical practice in the United States, according to the Medical Group Management Association of Colorado.
CEO Bill Edsel said the investment in the new facility amounts to about $1 million per physician-surgeon in the 33-member practice, which will expand to 37 in a few months. The potential patient base covers more than 15 counties and about 500,000 people.
In 2005, Pinehurst Surgical provided care to about 60,000 patients from its old, crowded facility in a building on the FirstHealth of the Carolinas Moore Regional campus, he said.
The new 131,135-square-foot facility at 5 FirstVillage Drive dominates the view from Memorial Drive. It features a spacious, comfortable lobby with fireplaces and a concierge to greet the patients and their families. The building is more than 90 percent completed.
Ground was broken in April 2005.
The practice hopes to move into the new building July 17, the 60th anniversary of its founding. To illustrate the commitment by the surgical practice, Edsel pointed out the place in the lobby where they will cache a time capsule to be opened in 2046 on Pinehurst Surgical's 100th anniversary.
Pinehurst Surgical is leasing seven acres from FirstHealth out of the 18 acres set aside for FirstVillage on Memorial Drive next to the Fitness Center.
The new building is conveniently situated facing the Surgery Center of Pinehurst on the other side of the main entrance to FirstVillage. The center is the first new facility to open at FirstVillage in January. It replaces a smaller, outdated ambulatory surgery center at Memorial Drive and Page Road.
"The need exists to avoid multiple places someone must visit to receive diagnostic testing, medical and surgical evaluations as well as follow-up appointments," Edsel said. "With this in mind, we are developing a full-service organization to provide these services to our patients, all contained within a unified locale in our state-of-the-art new facility."
Pinehurst Surgical's board sold its old building next to the Moore Regional Hospital to FirstHealth, and once it moves out, space will be freed up for FirstHealth's needs.
Formerly named the Pinehurst Surgical Clinic, the practice at one time was considering building its new facility on 16 acres it purchased on U.S. 15-501 next to Turnberry Wood office park.
Dr. John Ellis was "pivotal," Edsel said, in working out the arrangement with FirstHealth that prompted the Pinehurst Surgical board members to drop the Turnberry Wood site and build on FirstHealth campus.
Ellis is a retired orthopedic surgeon who serves on both the FirstHealth hospital board of directors trustees and the Pinehurst Surgical board, Edsel said.
Luxurious Amenities
One of the amenities the facility will have to make life more pleasant for patients and their families are pager units they can use within a six-mile radius, should the doctor be running late or patients arrive early.
"We will page the patient within 20 minutes so they can return to the building and complete the appointment," Edsel said.
That is all part of Pinehurst Surgical's "quest for providing world-class service" to its patients.
Eventually, the practice will provide golf cart courtesy transportation to and from the patient's car. An expanded patient parking lot is near the building.
The lobby features a "grand hotel" atmosphere of understated luxury decorated in earth tones. Fireplaces and rocking chairs complete the ensemble. It will have a Villager Deli nook serving sandwiches, soups, and beverages for the general public.
Just off the lobby sits the Renaissance Community Room that will be available for public use free of charge, by appointment. It has a separate entrance for night access, separate bathrooms and a kitchen.
Each floor above the first level has satellite kitchen, bathrooms, balconies with rocking chairs for employees to use during breaks without having to travel from one floor to the next.
Adding More Physicians
"Our diagnostic capabilities with our ancillary services will be greatly expanded for our patients," Edsel said.
Four new physicians will join the practice in the next few months, increasing the present physician-surgeon total from 33 to 37.
A seventh orthopedic surgeon with specialized training in New York for total joint replacements will come on board in August. A third cardiac-thoracic-vascular specialist from the University of Florida will arrive in July. A fifth obstetrics-gynecology physician will also be added this summer. A psychiatrist joined the practice this month.
This nonsurgical specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation comes from Johns Hopkins University to oversee the pain management and the rehab section of the Neurological Surgery Center, representing a new service supporting the practice's two neurosurgeons.
The practice also has surgeons in facial plastic surgery, and is recruiting for a general plastic surgeon; four ear, nose, throat, head and neck surgeons; two vascular surgeons; five urology surgeons, eight general surgeons with two of them specializing in bariatric surgery; and 18 physician assistants or nurse practitioners who provide care as supervised by the surgeons.
In the future, Pinehurst Surgical plans to construct a state-of-the-art nonsterile BioSkills learning center. The center will be leased to medical device manufacturers, researcher groups and interested surgeons who require access to laboratory space to demonstrate and train others with the latest surgical techniques. The 650-square foot facility will be outfitted with equipment to produce studio quality voice and images that can be broadcast worldwide.
Prices will not be increased, said Edsel, but the practice expects to make money by improving efficiency, adding new services and increasing internal cost-effectiveness. Pinehurst Surgical takes private insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid, he said.
"We don't turn anyone away for inability to pay," he said.
Sara Lindau can be reached at 693-2473 or by e-mail at slindau@thepilot.com. |
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