Ground breaks on latest project at Community Regional

A rendering of the new Deran Koligian Ambulatory Care Center slated for completion in December 2009 on the Community Regional Medical Center campus.

Officials broke ground early Dec. 4 on the new 79,534-square-foot Deran Koligian Ambulatory Care Center, the latest piece of a growth spurt on the Community Regional Medical Center campus in downtown Fresno.

The Deran Koligian Ambulatory Care Center provided outpatient services, including primary care, specialty care, vision, dental, health education and rural outreach to more than 136,000 patients in the past fiscal year. In June 2002, the outpatient clinics at then-University Medical Center were renamed in honor of Koligian, the late Fresno County Board of Supervisors chairman who was a longtime advocate of health services for the disadvantaged.

“I have been looking forward to this day for more than 10 years,” said Dr. Joan Voris, associate dean of the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, in front of a gathering of about 100 employees, doctors, board members and influencers. “It’s the next step in the growth of this campus as a regional academic medical center.”

Surgical services has already moved into a new, adjacent building on the Community Regional campus, and services remaining  at the former UMC (now Community Health Center-Cedar) are slated to move to the new ambulatory care center after its completion in December 2009.

From left to right: ambulatory care manager Holly Clark, board member Laurie Primavera, board secretary Ralph Garcia, Dr. Dominic Dizon, Chuck Poochigian, Community Regional CEO Jack Chubb, associate administrator Robyn Gonzales, ambulatory care director Sherry Hughes and UCSF Fresno associate dean Dr. Joan Voris.

The new facility, which will be located north of the main hospital on the southwest corner of McKenzie Avenue and Howard Street, will feature 104 exam rooms, an X-ray room and three lab drawing stations. The clinics relocating include eye, women’s, children’s, internal medicine, family practice, special services, dental and oral maxillofacial surgery.  Services relocating are pharmacy, registration, health information management, laboratory, X-ray and administration.

“This is tremendously important for the teaching program from a practical reason, which is bringing this all together on one campus,” Dr. Voris said. “It facilitates the flow not only of patients, but will make it much better for residents and faculty. They’ll be able to get from clinics to the hospital within five minutes.”

There will be numerous benefits for patients as well, Dr. Voris said, including a boost in technology that will allow for remote consultation so some patients with chronic diseases or patients in rural areas won’t have to make as many trips to the hospital.

In the past, patients sometimes had to travel from the former UMC building to Community Regional to get CT scans or MRIs, but that hardship will be eliminated with the new ambulatory care center’s close proximity to Community Regional, said ambulatory care director Sherry Hughes.

This construction coincides with ongoing projects for a new six-level parking structure on the campus slated for completion in March, and a four-story, 88,000-square-foot medical office building. Other recent projects include the opening of a new 18,795-square-foot laboratory this past January and the trauma and critical care building that opened in April 2007 and houses the only burn and Level 1 trauma center between Los Angeles and Sacramento.

“Completion of this project gets us closer to completing our 30-year long-range plan as approved by the board of trustees in 2001,” said Mark Mathieson, senior vice president for facilities management, “and our five county-wide service envisioned goals to the community we proudly serve.”

This story was reported by Eddie Hughes. He can be reached at eddieh@communitymedical.org.

Thursday, December 04, 2008