Community Care Centers

Non flash

A Better Way to Bring Care to the Community

Community Care Centers Could Be the Future of Outpatient Facilities

A generation or two ago, when a hospital needed to add outpatient space, the next step seemed obvious: build a large medical office building (MOB) on the existing campus.

During the past 20 years or so, however, most providers have recognized that off-campus facilities can often be a more effective way to deliver patient care while achieving their organizational objectives.

Now a fresh approach to off-campus development is taking the concept a step further. A new generation of off-campus outpatient facilities called Community Care Centers holds the promise of further increasing patient convenience and reducing costs while better supporting patient-friendly provider strategies.

The concept is so new that it lacks a formal definition, but Community Care Centers generally share these characteristics -

  • freestanding
  • one or two stories
  • 25,000 - 50,000 sf
  • situated at busy, high-visibility sites
  • located in growing, demographically attractive suburban or exurban areas
  • flanked by ample, free surface parking
  • home to multiple healthcare services, but all provided by a single hospital or system
  • usually focused on primary care, urgent care, imaging and/or rehabilitation services
  • fun, colorful, inviting, non-institutional designs with higher-level finishes and patient-friendly touches than enhance the patient experience
  • branded by the provider

Perhaps most importantly, Community Care Centers are a dramatic departure from the concept of healthcare facilities as a destination. These facilities are integrated into the community, putting healthcare services closer to where people live and work.

From the exterior design and signage to the size and location, Community Care Centers also have more in common with neighborhood retail centers than most MOBs.


Outpatient facilities as strategy

Technological and treatment advances have enabled the shift to outpatient care, and economics have made it a necessity. But more sophisticated healthcare providers have also seen it as a strategic opportunity.

Delivering healthcare at off-campus outpatient facilities can -

  • Increase patient / customer convenience, satisfaction and access to care
  • Grow providers' brands and market shares in developing suburbs and exurbs
  • Increase and diversify revenue streams
  • Enable providers to more cost-effectively add service lines and to create a new source of referrals

Although larger, more traditional outpatient centers can often help providers to achieve these same strategic objectives, Community Care Centers might be even more effective.

Off-campus facilities are often more convenient than on-campus facilities simply because they are located closer to where most patients live and work. That means there is less need to contend with urban traffic congestion, expensive parking ramps, inner-city safety concerns and acres of labyrinthine buildings. But Community Care Centers go one step further. After all, what could be easier, cheaper, safer and more convenient than having a healthcare facility located on a major street in your own town? Patients and their families can drive to a nearby Community Care Center within minutes, park near the entrance - free - and be inside within moments.

Setting up shop in a suburban market where an urban hospital previously had no physical presence is a proven strategy for growing and defending its market share. Often, those projects are also the precursor to the eventual construction of a full-blown medical campus, complete with an acute care hospital.

Yet a major development can be many years in the making - and regulatory hurdles, obstructionist competitors and neighborhood opposition can scuttle ambitious projects altogether. Likewise, the size and scope of some of these projects can limit their development to a handful of large sites. Community Care Centers allow providers to be more nimble. There tend to be more small sites available, which can allow the more rapid expansion of a hospital's brand. Approvals can also be easier to obtain and construction doesn't take nearly as long - generating revenues in as little as nine or 10 months rather than two or three years.

Community Care Centers generally also cost less to develop. Traditional off-campus MOBs and other outpatient facilities are usually sizable buildings - often multiple stories and upwards of 50,000 sf. Community Care Centers tend to be smaller, often single-story structures. Site acquisition costs are less because not as much land is needed, and construction costs less because there is little square footage is lost to public lobbies, elevators and stairwells. Community Care Centers can also take advantage of steel-reinforced, tilt-up concrete slab construction, which saves time and reduces costs.

"You can build about four of these for about the cost of one 100,000 sf medical office building - and cover more geographic area," notes Phil Taylor, AIA, Senior Vice President of Architecture and Construction for Lillibridge.

And while Community Care Centers have the look and feel of several individual physician offices - sometimes even with separate entrances - they can be designed to be interconnected behind the scenes. That allows further savings through the sharing of support services and back office functions.


The future is now

Will Community Care Centers concept become the preferred model of future outpatient facility development? At least one pioneering system is committed to finding out. Adventist Health System's Florida Division is actively developing two such facilities, with another on the drawing board.

Construction began in early February for the one-story, 24,000 sf Victoria Medical Park in DeLand, Florida. The neighborhood-style facility is being built in the fast-growing Victoria Park master-planned mixed-use development - near Florida Hospital DeLand, but off campus.

Plans call for the hospital-owned building to be occupied by physician offices, an imaging center, a women's center, rehabilitation services and a laboratory. Each suite will have its own outside entrance, eliminating the expense of building public spaces - although there will be non-public interconnections between the suites to foster the cost savings provided by shared support services.

Completion is anticipated by late August. The building was designed and is being developed by Lillibridge and is being built by the Orlando office of Freese Construction.

"With this new medical park, we will be able to provide more services to better serve the needs of our patients, as we continue to deliver healthcare close to home," said Daryl Tol, Chief Executive Officer / President at Florida Hospital DeLand.

Adventist also plans to begin construction late this year for a one-story, 30,000 sf, off-campus Community Care Center in Deltona, Florida. The facility is located a busy intersection in the Osteen Joint Planning Area, a section of Volusia County where significant growth is anticipated. The site is near Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City, Florida.

The Deltona plans call for a neighborhood-style health center offering a range of outpatient services. Physician offices, an imaging center, an urgent care center and rehabilitation services are some of the anticipated uses of the new hospital-owned facility. In keeping with the retail flavor of these Community Care Centers, the project is being developed in a predominantly retail area - making outpatient care as convenient and accessible as a trip to the dry cleaner.

Although providers such as Solantic and Florida Hospital's own CentraCare sub-brand have previously developed small, freestanding health centers in Florida, those facilities are focused on the infrequent need for urgent care. The DeLand and Deltona Community Care Centers are intended to establish and nurture an ongoing patient relationship.

In particular, Florida Hospital executives wanted to further enhance the patient experience and to make the Deltona facility more of a hub of community activity. So the design includes a public-friendly, multi-use parlor that can be used as a common check-in and waiting area, and for patient education. It is slated to include a water wall and a 600-gallon fish tank built into the wall.

The Deltona building can also grow the community; it is expandable by up to 8,000 sf. It is being designed and developed by Lillibridge and is slated to open about one year after the start of construction.

Although these first two Community Care Centers are being developed in Florida, there's no reason this concept couldn't be transplanted to other parts of the country.

"The concept can work anywhere," Mr. Taylor says.


Closer to the customer

Community Care Centers aren't always the right choice. By their nature, they are smaller and more neighborhood based. That means a larger outpatient center might be a better option if the goal is serve a wider geographic area, or if the facility is seen as the first step in the development of a fully integrated medical campus.

But for situations that demand a relatively quick, highly cost-effective, patient-friendly strategy for extending a hospital's services and brand to other geographic locations, Community Care Centers could indeed be the outpatient center of the future.

For more information - contact John Montgomery, EVP Facility Development.