Officials of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center cut the ribbon on a new Shepley Bulfinch-designed Outpatient Surgery Center (OSC) on June 17.
The ribbon cutting was part of a public open house for the OSC, which officially opened to patients on June 22. The open house included tours of the facility and demonstrations of operating room technologies.
“The OSC is designed to enhance the efficiency of current operations by performing many outpatient surgical procedures at a single, specialized facility, and reserving DHMC’s current surgical suites for more complex surgical procedures and emergency trauma cases,” said OSC Medical Director Douglas Merrill MD.
The 41,000 s.f. center is expected to accommodate 4,100 outpatient surgeries annually. With eight operating rooms that will open in two phases, the Center makes simple “same day” surgical procedures convenient and accessible for patients while freeing up significant space in the main hospital’s operating rooms.
“We believe this new facility is the appropriate solution that now enables us to schedule elective and non-emergent surgeries in a way that is more convenient and less stressful for our patients,” added Dr. Merrill. “It gives us the ability to provide the right care in the right setting.”
Located near the entrance to Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Lebanon campus, the facility is also efficient for the medical center’s staff. The Center includes dedicated parking and a glass canopied entry that takes visitors into a waiting area filled with natural light. Designed and built with an emphasis on value and energy efficiency, the building envelope is tailored to the temperature extremes of northern New England, making it a model for outpatient centers in cold-weather climates.
Shepley Bulfinch has been working with Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center to develop and expand its facilities since the mid-1980s, when it prepared the original master plan for a new hospital campus in Lebanon and pioneered the concept of the “medical mall” within the hospital.
