Freeman to open surgery center
Freeman Health System will expand its surgical business by moving many of its surgeries and outpatient procedures into another building next year.
Freeman, along with Nueterra Healthcare of Leawood, Kan., and 10 doctors will open the Freeman Surgery Center next summer at 34th Street and Jackson Avenue.
The building currently is under construction. It will house four operating rooms, a procedure room, a swing room that can be used for either surgery or procedures, a recovery room, and lounge in 17,735 square feet.
Phil Willcoxon, senior vice president of administration at Freeman Health System, said the center will be leased by Freeman, Nueterra and the investing physicians from an investments group that will own the building.
He said that surgeries that do not require extended hospitalization afterward along with outpatient procedures will be moved to the new surgery center. Orthopedic and general surgeries along with tonsil and adenoid removals are examples of the types of work that can be done in the freestanding center.
"It's a more effective, efficient way to provide these types of services," Willcoxon said. "If a patient has surgery scheduled in an operating room at the main hospital and an emergency trauma comes in, they have to wait," Willcoxon said.
"It's more efficient to get patients in and out quickly because they don't have to worry about any other services," he said.
Many procedures currently done at Freeman Hospital East also will be moved to the new center, Willcoxon said.
He said 5,000 to 6,000 procedures and surgeries could be done a year in the freestanding surgery center, allowing Freeman to "build volume over the long run."
Asked what doctors are joining with Freeman and Nueterra in the development of the center, Willcoxon said there are 10, but declined to identify them, saying he could not give their names without their permission.
The surgery center will be Nueterra Healthcare's first venture in the Joplin area, according to Matthew Wiggins, a marketing specialist with the company.
Nueterra, according to a news release, was established in 1997. It owns and manages more than 90 surgical and outpatient centers in 27 states, the release states.
Nueterra will work jointly with Freeman and its partnering physicians to operate the center, Wiggins said. "We bring expertise in how to efficiently operate an outpatient surgical facility."
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