NYU Langone Hospitals has developed a plan to create an Ambulatory Surgery Center for orthopedic services to be established in an office building at 4 Westchester Park Drive in West Harrison.
“The addition of a freestanding ambulatory surgery center in Westchester County will enable patients who reside in or closer to Westchester to access orthopedic services closer to home,” NYU Langone said in its Certificate of Need filing with the New York Sate Department of Health. “Currently, NYULH patients residing in Westchester and as well as some patients outside the service area must travel to Manhattan for orthopedic services, which creates time and cost burdens for patients.”
The center would be in a currently unoccupied space on the ground floor of the building and would encompass 15,071 square feet. Some mechanical equipment for the facility would be installed outside of the building including in an area that would be surrounded by a new retaining wall. New HVAC equipment would be installed, along with new ductwork and other equipment. The site was described as having parking surrounding the entire building with an abundance of accessible parking spaces.
NYU Langone estimated the total cost of the project at $38,435,000, with $7,770,000 of that allocated to the cost of equipping the facility. The center would begin with 47 employees in its first year, expanding to 65 employees in the third year of operation. It said the project would be completed in a single phase.
The Harrison Planning Board was expected to take up the application for the center at its July 22 meeting.
NYU Langone described the center as including a dedicated waiting room along with a pre-procedure preparation and post-surgery recovery area that would have 12 bays for patients. There would be a multipurpose room that could be used for examinations as well as consultations, four operating rooms, on-site sterile processing, and various other spaces for patient support and offices for the center’s physicians and staff.
NYU Langone Health said that it reached out to Westchester’s Commissioner of Health Dr. Sherlita Amler who indicated that an ambulatory surgery center would be welcomed in the county and expressed her view that the central location of what was being planned by NYU Langone would broaden access for county residents to have surgical procedures closer to home.
NYU Langone said that Amler highlighted that Westchester County’s large population of older adults would benefit from this facility. She noted that there are several retirement communities in Westchester and residents of those communities, as well as older individuals throughout the county in general, would now be able to receive these services without having to go into Manhattan, which she saw as a real benefit.
NYU Langone said that the orthopedic Ambulatory Surgery Center would function as a department of NYU Langone Hospital and as such, the hospital will provide oversight on its quality of care, including credentialing, utilization and quality assurance monitoring.
“By providing residents of Westchester County with easy access to orthopedic ambulatory surgeries, we are enhancing their capacity for engaging in healthy activities,” NYU Langone said. “They will be able to once again engage in physical activities that they have previously been unable to partake in.”
