Geisinger cuts ribbon on $90 million Medical Office Building

Five floors (the valley vistas from the upper ones run from mountain ridge to mountain ridge), 165,000 square feet, 175 exam rooms, seven procedure and treatment rooms, services for 15 medical practices on an outpatient basis, substantial education spaces for future physicians and health care professionals, all with a connected garage providing 479 parking spaces.

The numbers for the Geisinger Medical Office Building, where the ribbon was cut Thursday and the first patient is expected to be welcomed Monday, are impressive. The actual features shown off with tours for media and attendees made the numbers seem almost inadequate.

The main entrance lobby is deliberately designed to look inviting, more like a cafe or coffee shop, which is reinforced by, well, a coffee counter. There are self check-in stations that, Dan Landesberg said, will have people standing nearby to assist. It’s worth pointing out the interim vice president of facilities, planning and construction kept smiling broadly with every stop to show off one of the features in the $90 million building, apparently as impressed as many visitors.

And during remarks preceding the ribbon cutting Thursday morning, Dr. Alfred Casale — chief medical officer for surgical services — stressed that among the many patient-friendly features, the building would have “an all-attraction pass,” making reference to a single-fee amusement park with no separate cost to get on rides. “People won’t have to check in 12 times.” The check-in process will be facilitated with digital facial recognition, he added.

While Landesberg was happy to try to rattle off the medical services during the tour, Casale said part of his job at the podium was to make sure no one felt slighted, so he noted the building will have a house lab, radiology/imaging services, a retail pharmacy, general surgery, vascular surgery, pulmonary medicine, infectious diseases, adult neurology, pediatric neurology, neurosurgery, neurophysiology, otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat), audiology, gastroenterology, nephrology (kidney related) and transplant surgery practices.

But, he added, despite all the floors and rooms and services, it has been laid out to keep patient travel inside simple. There are separate entrances into sections for patients/family and for staff. Landesberg pointed out some built-in sections where staff will be able to meet together to discuss cases, saying “This is an area patients will never see.”

Landesberg also made sure to show of a large education space filled more with long tables and chairs than any patient equipment. Such space “accommodates our growing compliment of learners.” In fact the entire facility is meant to be friendly to those working their way into the health care field, creating “a clinical environment.”

Casale said that while such a set up benefits students, the senior staff also gains from hearing the often insightful queries from their soon-to-be-co-workers.

The $20 million parking garage was built in coordination with the Medical Office Building and is directly attached so visitors should not have to experience any real rain or wind “unless it is blowing sideways,” said Mike DiMare, interim associate vice president of clinical operations for Geisinger Wyoming Valley.

And from a fourth-story floor-to-ceiling window, Landesberg pointed to the space still existing between the new Medical Office building and the Emergency entrance for the main Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital and said “That’s where the next phase will be built.” While details aren’t yet finalized, some construction vehicles were already doing preliminary work for what is to be an expansion of the ER and an addition of patient rooms. Once that is complete, there will be a physical connection between the outpatient medical building and the acute care hospital, making much of the campus almost one continuous building.

Between recent expansion of the the Henry Cancer Center and other earlier construction and renovations, Geisinger Wyoming Valley likely would be unrecognizable to anyone who hasn’t visited for 20 or even 10 years. President and CEO Jaewon Ryu said the many additions, coupled with new facilities elsewhere in the area like the Healthplex CenterPoint and several Geisinger 65 Forward facilities, amounts to “a $1.4 billion investment in the community over 15 years.”

The new Medical Office Building replaces an older, 1981 facility that had become considerably outdated and will likely be repurposed, perhaps for office space, Landesberg said. Casale noted that by moving 15 outpatient services to the new buildings, space is being freed up in the main hospital building.

Along with being able to serve more people, the new building should speed up service all around. “Space creates access,” Ryu said. “Access means you can get appointments, and get those appointments in a more timely fashion.

The bottom line, several speakers stressed, is improving patient service, in turn improving community health.