Martha Jefferson Hospital Opens Separate Facility for Outpatient Care
As things got cramped at Martha Jefferson Hospital‚ the administration took a detailed look at how to offer the highest quality care in the most efficient and comfortable manner. Separating outpatient care from the current hospital seemed to be the answer.
In September 2003‚ the not-for-profit hospital dedicated a 94‚000-square-foot‚ three-story Outpatient Care Center‚ customized to deliver outpatient care in a private and comfortable environment.
That was a milestone development for the century-old hospital‚ but it was just a sign of things to come. The hospital plans to build and move incrementally to the new location at 595 Peter Jefferson Parkway over the next decade.
That location‚ not far from Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello‚ is just two miles from the current hospital in downtown Charlottesville. When all components are in place‚ the new Martha Jefferson Hospital will occupy 84 acres of a 242-acre campus known as Peter Jefferson Place.
The new Outpatient Care Center houses a diagnostic imaging center‚ physical and occupational therapy area‚ three outpatient surgery operating rooms‚ cardiac rehabilitation program‚ urgent care center open 364 days a year from noon to 8 p.m.‚ and women’s services including prenatal diagnosis‚ midlife care and breast health.
“We have seen a tremendous growth in outpatient services‚ about 10 to 12 percent growth over the past eight or nine years‚” says Ron Cottrell‚ vice president of planning and corporate development for Martha Jefferson Hospital. “With that increase‚ we were feeling a tremendous compression on our hospital campus – in where cars were parking‚ in stress on the facility‚ in the speed of our registration process.”
Realizing that the demand on the downtown building – with some areas more than 70 years old – had become overwhelming‚ officials analyzed what services could be managed independent of the hospital.
“We came up with this building exclusively dedicated to outpatient services‚” Cottrell says. “This new campus allows us to keep up with the growth of the community‚ at the same time offering the latest technological advancements (and) expanding the scope of services we are able to offer.”
One of the highlights of the Outpatient Care Center is the open magnetic resonance imaging system that allows physicians to scan patients three times faster than with any other commercially available open MRI system. The Diagnostic Imaging Center also includes state-of-the-art CT‚ ultrasound‚ radiography‚ fluoroscopy‚ bone densitometry‚ digital mammography and analog mammography.
“It was fun to design this facility‚ working from a clean sheet of paper‚ designing processes for the outpatient experience‚” Cottrell says.
