An eastern Pennsylvania-based privately-held hospital network further expanded its footprint and medical services in western New Jersey with the opening this morning of its newest site.
Coordinated Health hosted a ribbon cutting for its new integrated health care campus in Lopatcong Township, N.J.
The South Whitehall Township-based hospital network built the site at the former home of Avantor Performance Materials at 222 Red School Lane near Phillipsburg. The site had been vacant for several years until Coordinated Health bought it and began renovations. Avantor had moved to Upper Saucon Township.
The new facility represents significant economic development for the region, said Jim Tsokanos, president of Coordinated Health. The first part of the company’s plan for the site includes employing 30 clinical and administrative staff at the medical office building and adding 50 more staff for the second part of the project, for which it plans to expand with an ambulatory surgery center, he said.
The entire estimated project budget for the two parts is expected to be more than $20 million.
“It’s also about economic development and jobs,” Tsokanos said. “Thirty to 40 percent of the people living there are leaving to get care in another location. It’s creating new choice and quality care.”
The campus includes a team of specialty and fellowship-trained physicians in orthopedics, joint replacement, spine, wrist, hand and foot and ankle care. Support services include physical therapy and advanced imaging and a wide-bore MRI machine.
The 23,085 square-foot-building covers 10 acres and includes primary care services and a Care on Demand walk-in clinic.
Coordinated Health closed the clinics at Hillcrest Plaza and Stryker Road, also in Lopactong, and integrated the staff from those two locations into this new site.
“This new campus is in keeping with putting these units together versus building these huge hospitals and producing a product that’s higher in quality and lower in cost,” said Dr. Emil DiIorio, CEO of Coordinated Health.
With regard to health care today, the cost is too much, and, in many cases, the quality of care doesn’t match up, DiIorio said.
“You have to show that what you produce has a value,” he said. “The patient is saying, ‘I have to see what kind of quality I am getting for the cost.’ ”
With high-deductible insurance plans, patients are having to put out more money to pay the bill, he said.
He said health care systems should change to a value-based population health management model. This model takes people with a similar need to give them care. As an example, patients with advanced arthritic knees who require a knee replacement could be treated in the same place.
This is why he said Coordinated Health offers such services as an imaging department, operating room, overnight stay rooms and physical therapy in one spot.
By using the techniques of industrial systems engineering, and engaging doctors and teams, more effective clinical integration can happen.
With fewer service lines, Coordinated Health can operate more efficiently than hospitals, which have large numbers of service lines, DiIorio said.
“We worked hard to put all these pieces together, and now the last couple of years, we spent a significant amount of time and money to go from vertical integration to clinical integration,” he said.
