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WHS shows off outpatient center

4 min read
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Rick Shrum / Observer-Reporter

Physicians Howard Goldberg, left, and Ed Stafford have relocated their Washington Ear, Nose & Throat practice to the outpatient center.

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A waiting area for families near the entrance of the outpatient center

Howard Goldberg couldn’t help but savor the delicious irony.

“This was a very big collaboration among the hospital, physicians and the surgery center,” he said. “Twenty-five physicians helped put this facility together. It’s hard to get two physicians together on anything.”

Goldberg was kidding and brimming with pride at the same time.

He is among those 25 doctors, and the linchpin of the group, which helped spearhead the financial drive behind Washington Health System’s new Outpatient Center at Meadows Landing.

The $14 million facility has been operational since October, and was on display to media and guests Thursday evening. They got to tour the two-story, 50,000-square-foot building and found it to be an ultramodern addition to the system, with lots of sparkle and space and – staffers promise – spectacular daylight views.

“The sunsets are beautiful here,” said Linda Rumbaugh, director of clinical services of Tri-State Surgery Center, the first-floor occupant.

The center sits atop Meadows Landing off Route 19 and high above Racetrack Road, the centerpiece for now – and perhaps for good – of the mixed-use development in South Strabane Township.

Washington Area Teachers Federal Credit Union is the only other entity functioning there, although the Speedway convenience store/gasoline station is targeted to open soon.

Rumbaugh said the center opens daily at 6 a.m. and closes after the last patient leaves.

Gary Weinstein is gratified by the outpatient center’s presence. He is president and chief executive officer of the health system, whose flagship is Washington Hospital, 2 ½ miles south of the new facility. Planning for the new digs began five or six years ago.

“It was a long time in the making, mostly on deciding on the site,” Weinstein said. “Once we decided, there was a lot of work to be done.”

A lot of work, indeed. It took awhile to clear and level the outpatient property, preparing it for development by Graziano Construction and Development Co. of O’Hara Township. Graziano began work in late summer 2013 and finished a little more than a year later, a rapid process considering the miserable weather of a year ago.

Tri-State Surgery Center is one of six tenants there, and by far the largest. It occupies 19,000 square feet on the ground floor, more than one-third of the building.

The other five are on the floor above. The Women’s Center and Laboratory Draw Site share Suite 201; Keystone Pain Consultants is in 202; Southwest Gastroenterology in 205; and Washington Ear Nose & Throat in 207.

Goldberg and Ed Stafford are ENT partners who, now, are more keenly aware that efficient ends in ENT. Stafford said the patient process in their new digs is much more efficient than it was at their previous office, at Neighbor Health on Leonard Avenue in Washington, near the hospital.

“I think flow is the most important thing for us,” Stafford said. “There are a lot of different things we do, a lot of exams, and the way this office is set up, you have rapid flow. You can see as many patients as you need to see.”

He also extolled the geographic virtues of the center, near a recognizable landmark – The Meadows Racetrack & Casino – plus three major arteries, Route 19 and interstates 79 and 70.

“We have patients not only from Washington County, but the South Hills, West Virginia, Waynesburg and Fayette County,” he said. “We tell them we’re near The Meadows. A lot of people know where The Meadows is.”

It is down below the outpatient center, an attractive building parallel to and near the southbound side of Washington Road (Route 19). Parking at the new facility is plentiful and free, which pleases patients.

And for anyone who believes construction of the outpatient center was painstaking … Hal Kestler and Gerry Cipriani purchased the 204-acre site in 2006.

Following delays and fallout from a bad economy, the developers from Meadows Landing Associates are witnessing progress. A shopping complex also is planned.

The WHS center is the centerpiece, though, and Weinstein is pleased with the design, the tenants and the financial partnership that fueled its development.

“It’s been a great partnership,” he said. “Here are 25 doctors who put up the majority of the financing.”

Stafford likewise praised the financial partnership, and his professional partner’s role in it.

Goldberg said the hospital does own about 28 percent of the center, and Tri-State Surgery 5 percent, with the remainder split among the 25 doctors.

His role in this has been formidable.

“More than anybody,” Stafford said, “Dr. Goldberg is responsible for getting this off the ground.”

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