Hospital for Special Surgery is nearing completion of its 50,000-square-foot outpatient facility in White Plains, targeting an opening date sometime this fall. The Manhattan-based orthopedic hospital is hoping the facility, which will be its largest outpatient center, will offer convenience for the 10 percent of its patients that come from Westchester County.
The deal to bring Hospital for Special Surgery to 1133 Westchester Ave. was first announced in January 2016 by Robert P. Weisz, CEO of RPW Group in Rye Brook, owner of the 620,000-square-foot office building that once served as offices for IBM.
The hospital started the construction for the center in September 2016 and is targeting late September or October for its official opening.
Jennifer Rentas, vice president of regional markets for the hospital, said the new center will allow Westchester residents easier access to its services.
“We”™d like to be able to treat them closer to home, it”™s very simple,” Rentas said. “We”™d like to be able to provide the convenience of patients being able to access our preoperative, postoperative and diagnostic facilities close to home and have that convenience.”
The Hospital for Special Surgery is the nation”™s oldest orthopedic hospital and is consistently ranked as a top hospital in the country by U.S. News & World Report in its Best Hospitals listings. The hospital, on 70th Street in Upper Manhattan, was ranked first nationally in orthopedics and second in adult rheumatology on the magazine”™s 2016-17 list.
The Westchester center will expand on the hospital”™s outpatient network, which includes an 18,000-square-foot facility at Chelsea Piers Connecticut in Stamford. The hospital also operates outpatient centers in Queens, Long Island, New Jersey and several sites in Manhattan.
A hospital spokesperson said a total project cost for the Westchester center was not available.
There will be a mix of doctors based in Westchester and others rotating between Manhattan and the outpatient center.
The center will also offer the “full spectrum” of rehabilitation services, including performance-based physical therapy that offers physical analysis and injury prevention training.
There will be about 20 full-time support employees at the center when it opens, climbing to between 25 and 30 total employees by the end the first year, Rentas said. That includes rehab technicians and physical therapists, along with X-ray and MRI technicians.
An MRI machine was delivered at the end of June and will be installed on the first floor of the building. Once installed, the front of the building will be closed off, completing the re-facing for the outpatient center, Rentas said.
Hospital for Special Surgery will join a number of health care systems and providers that have expanded services along the Interstate 287 corridor in White Plains, Harrison and Purchase.
A mile west of 1133 Westchester Ave., Memorial Sloan Kettering has a 114,000-square-foot outpatient cancer facility it opened in 2014 at 500 Westchester Ave. in Harrison. Westmed Medical Group in May 2015 opened an 85,000-square-foot medical office at 3030 Westchester Ave.
Hospital for Special Surgery is a member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System and an affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College in Manhattan. NewYork-Presbyterian has also expanded into Westchester. Two years ago, it became parent organization and co-operator of Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville and Hudson Valley Hospital in Cortlandt Manor.
