NexCore Group has broken ground on a 130,000 square foot, integrated ambulatory care center for Mount Carmel Health System in Orange Township. The facility has been named MC Fitness & Health. (For a video of this project, please visit: https://vimeo.com/129563734 .)
Orange Township is located in Delaware County, one of the fastest growing counties in Ohio and the number one ranked county in Ohio for the growth of senior citizens.
Mount Carmel is a member of CHI Trinity Health, the second-largest Catholic health care system in the United States. Mount Carmel Lewis Center is one of three outpatient centers that NexCore is currently developing for CHE Trinity Health in different parts of the country.
“The healthcare delivery system is evolving, and health systems are beginning to develop facilities that integrate outpatient, physician, and medical fitness/wellness services as a way to manage population health, reduce acute care readmissions, and prepare for healthcare reform,” says Jarrod Daddis, Executive Managing Director of Development at NexCore Group. “The Mount Carmel Lewis Center is one of the ways that Mount Carmel is moving toward a value-based model of patient care.”
The project site is located on the US 23 retail corridor at Corduroy Road. A new pedestrian bridge just north of the site, which will promote the visibility of Mount Carmel Lewis Center, spans across US 23 to provide access to the community trail system, County Library, Inn at Olentangy Trail (a senior assisted living residence), and North Orange Park Aquatics Center.
Population Health Management
Mount Carmel Lewis Center will be a comprehensive, state-of-the-art ambulatory care and medical fitness center that offers quality outpatient care, fitness, wellness education, and rehabilitation facilities to the residents of Delaware County and surrounding areas.
The facility will provide a venue for patients and the community to pursue healthier lifestyles and manage chronic health problems and for Mount Carmel employees and physicians the opportunity to improve their own health status.
“This new facility, which will provide comprehensive services under one roof, will be a very important tool for managing the health of the Delaware County community,” says Brett Justice, Vice President of Strategic Advancement at Mount Carmel.
“As our development partner, NexCore Group has played an important role in helping us realize our vision for the Mount Carmel Lewis Center. The NexCore team came equipped with an appreciation of healthcare strategy, they worked to identify the most advantageous location for the facility, and they shared valuable best practices regarding the development and programming of integrated medical fitness centers.”
Integrated Programming and Design
The Mount Carmel Lewis Center facility will be home to an urgent care center, ambulatory services, an integrated medical fitness center, wellness education services, physician offices, an education/conference center, and retail services.
The fitness center will be the largest component of the facility in both size and programmatic scope, providing medically integrated programming and oversight for a wide variety of individuals who feel that commercial fitness centers cannot accommodate their unique healthcare needs.
Clinical program areas in the facility will share common areas such as patient waiting and registration, as well as common parking and lobby areas. Some of the clinical areas, such as physical therapy and cardiac rehabilitation, will be located immediately adjacent to the main workout areas of the medical fitness center to provide cross utilization opportunities of space and equipment by patients and members.
In addition to housing primary care and specialty physicians with the Mount Carmel Medical Group, the facility will provide approximately 20,000 rentable square feet of medical office space for independent physicians.
The interiors of the facility have been designed to accommodate patient-centered care and wellness, efficient circulation, flexible floor plates, and building systems that are easily maintained and adaptable. The facility’s modern interior design provides a sense of brightness and optimism in public spaces. In addition, the rich finishes used throughout the medical fitness center in the lobby, café, locker rooms, indoor pools, and workout areas convey an upscale feel found in a high-end health club.