WellSpan plans $49M Hanover area outpatient facility

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The $49 million WellSpan Hanover Health Center, to be built on Baltimore Street, is expected to open by fall 2018, officials with York-based WellSpan said.

The facility will house an outpatient surgery suite, lab and imaging services, and primary care and specialty physician offices.

It will be built in phases, with the new surgery suite, lab and imaging services expected to open first.

Phase two of the center will include primary care and specialty physician offices in the areas of cardiology and OB-GYN with up to 36 patient exam rooms and treatment areas.

The project is pending approvals related to final land development, WellSpan spokesman Brett Marcy said.

“Through this new health center, WellSpan will bring even more advanced specialty care to the greater Hanover community, because we believe no one should have to leave York County to get the care they need,” said Dr. Kevin Mosser, president and CEO of WellSpan Health.

“In the future, we look forward to recruiting new physicians, investing in new services and programs and taking other steps that will keep health care local,” Mosser added.

Competitive marketplace

Development of the new facility comes as other providers are ramping up their presence in York County, in particular Harrisburg-based PinnacleHealth.

Last month, Pinnacle announced that it had signed a strategic agreement that is expected to result in an affiliation with Hanover Hospital this September.

Under that deal, PinnacleHealth officials have said they have “committed to dramatically increasing the ability of Hanover facilities to modernize, attract more patients, and expand services to the community,” but did not elaborate.

Also last month, Pinnacle completed its purchase of four midstate hospitals from Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Inc., including Memorial Hospital in Spring Garden Township, near York.

With the completion of that transaction, PinnacleHealth officials confirmed that they are moving forward with amended plans for a long-delayed project to build a new Memorial Hospital campus in West Manchester Township.

The Business Journal asked WellSpan if the new Hanover Health Center plans represented a response to those moves.

“We have been working on plans for this health center for well over a year,” Marcy replied, adding that his organization has been serving the health care needs of the Hanover area for more than a century.

WellSpan York Hospital traces its roots to the York Hospital and Dispensary, which was chartered in 1880.

“This health center will add to our already-significant presence in the Hanover area, bringing additional advanced specialty care services to the community in a convenient location,” Marcy added.

“This underscores our long-term commitment to keeping health care local, so those who live and work here can get the care they need close to home,” he added.

Surgery facilities

The new facility’s surgery suite will include four operating rooms and two specialty procedure rooms, together with more than two dozen private pre-op and post-op patient rooms, WellSpan officials said.

Plans call for the suite to offer the latest in bariatric, gastrointestinal, oncological, gynecological and orthopedic procedures, including joint reconstruction. Diagnostic imaging services will include ultrasound, X-ray, CT scan, mammography and MRI, they added.

Other WellSpan services currently located in the community include family medicine, women’s health, orthopedics, gastroenterology, radiation oncology and vascular surgery.