Amanda McGregor
DANVERS | Beverly Hospital's new $30 million medical and day-surgery center may be the first in town, but North Shore Medical Center/Massachusetts General Hospital's $144 million outpatient facility will surpass it, Robert Norton, North Shore Medical Center CEO, said during the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday.
"I don't know anything about the others, but I do know this by far will offer the most comprehensive (services)," said Norton. "There are offices for virtually every other specialty you can think of."
Yesterday's fanfare came several days after Beverly Hospital touted its nearly completed center off Route 62 in Danvers, set to open in November.
Four miles away, amid mountains of dirt and deep pits where crews were laying foundation, North Shore Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital celebrated their groundbreaking.
Construction crews actually started work over the summer, but hospital executives used yesterday's event to highlight the center's offerings, including what they called cutting-edge cardiac diagnostics and the North Shore Cancer Center, which will relocate from Peabody. The new facility is set to open in spring 2009.
"As the population ages, the demand for outpatient services will likely grow 15 percent," said Peter Slavin, CEO of Massachusetts General Hospital. "The patients and people of this region all will benefit."
More than 200 people gathered for the 10 a.m. ceremony and explored the borders of the construction site overlooking Route 128 north that will be home to the new Mass. General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care.
The center will include a 122,000-square-foot outpatient facility and an 80,000-square-foot medical office building.
"It's a little hard to picture with the piles of dirt behind us," Norton said. "We have designed this around the family and patient experience. It's rare you have the opportunity to design something from the ground up."
Those in attendance included stakeholders in the project, Danvers residents, town officials, major donors and the upper management of Massachusetts General Hospital, North Shore Medical Center and their parent company, Partners HealthCare.
Changing health care
James Mongan, CEO of Partners HealthCare, said the new Danvers center is at the front of a changing medical landscape.
"Health care is moving away from the inpatient (model)," Mongan said. "Centers like this one will play a very important role in the delivery of medical services."
The Endicott Street site was owned by Osram Sylvania, whose headquarters are still there under a long-term lease with the medical center. A portion of Osram Sylvania's facility was knocked down to make way for the new building.
Jennifer Flanagan of Marblehead spoke about her experience as a cancer patient in the past year at the North Shore Cancer Center, North Shore Medical Center and Mass. General. She said her team of doctors put her on an intensive seven-week treatment plan.
"There is a price to pay to get rid of those cancer cells," Flanagan said. "The care was excellent ... (and) enormously compassionate.
"Collaboration | you've got it," she said of the partnership between the hospitals. "It was the absolute gold standard of communication."
The ceremony was held under a crisp, white tent adjacent to the construction site, where speakers addressed the crowd from a podium flanked by balloons atop a temporary stage.
Guests mingled and munched on bruschetta, smoked salmon, mini strawberry shortcakes with whipped cream, and drank fresh juice and coffee in shiny, silver carafes.
"It will be such an asset to the town and not just Danvers, but the whole North Shore," said Sandy Lane of Danvers, who worked for North Shore Medical Center for 40 years.
Good neighbor
Martha Swindell, who works for Hospice of the North Shore, praised Mass. General and NSMC for accommodating neighbors of the project.
"They have addressed every issue, big and small," said Swindell, a Danvers Town Meeting member.
Each guest received a mini-Sharpie pen to add his or her signature, for posterity, to a construction beam that will be used in the building project. The pen was inscribed, "Make Your Mark 9/25/07," and came with a yellow bulldozer the size of a Matchbox car that read "Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care."
Dr. David Torchiana, chairman of the Mass. General Physicians Organization, noted that the facility is perched on the hillside of 100 Endicott St., rolling down to the Danvers River, which runs under Route 128. He called the setting tranquil.
"I wish we were here for the opening," he said. "I'm really impatient to get into this place and get going."
READER BOX
Highlights of the Mass. General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care
r Breast Health Center
r Diagnostic cardiology
r 24 infusion bays for chemotherapy
r 4 linear accelerators for radiation
r 13 exam rooms
r Blood lab and pharmacy
r 8 day surgery suites
r 32 pre-operative and recovery bays
r 8 pediatric recovery rooms
r Pre-surgical testing area
r Diagnostic imaging (CT scan, MRI, radiography and ultrasound)
r Family/patient resource center
SIDEBAR
Renovations underway at Salem Hospital
Even as attention was focused on the new outpatient center on Endicott Street, officials noted the work underway at Salem Hospital | a $40 million project to expand and update the Highland Avenue facility.
Construction began early last spring to create two private inpatient units and a new 20-bed intensive care unit.
"We've embarked on a very important project on the Salem campus as well," said Robert Norton, CEO of North Shore Medical Center.
The project will expand the radiology department, add 32 private medical-surgical rooms and move its pediatric beds out of North Shore Children's Hospital and into Salem Hospital.
It is also scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2009.
"We still have some four-bed patient rooms," said Norton, noting that the changes will help keep pace with the trend toward private hospital rooms. Two floors of Salem Hospital will be converted into private rooms.
The project also includes a new women's and children's pavilion, with 12 pediatric beds and an expanded special-care nursery.
