Two communities targeted for ambulatory expansion
By Carolyn Wilson, RN, executive vice president & COO
Over the past few months, I have presented Beaumont Health’s plans for ambulatory campus development to multiple physician groups across our system. To continue to increase awareness, I want to share this information with all of you. Beaumont’s goal is to expand our ambulatory services presence in areas of high growth through partnership opportunities.
After much market research and planning, the first two identified areas are northeast Macomb and Novi/Northville. Both areas project five-year population growth with a large percentage of our target consumers, limited Beaumont ambulatory presence and varied competitor presence.
Our research and planning began in 2017. We have worked with consultants to plan, develop and propose campus models, along with seeking land parcels, for two robust ambulatory campuses anchored by Beaumont services. The conceptual development of the campuses has been approved by Beaumont’s board of directors.
There are key concepts for ambulatory campus development between Beaumont and our developer, NexCore Group.
• Beaumont owns the land.
• Beaumont enters a long-term ground lease with NexCore.
• NexCore finances and builds the campuses.
• Beaumont will be a major tenant aligning with physicians to develop:
-a market-competitive real estate investment model
-alignment opportunities with surgery centers, imaging, physical therapy, emergency centers, etc.
We are performing due diligence on two different pieces of land, developing designs, leasing spaces and securing early foundation and structural permits. It’s an exciting time as we hope to break ground and begin construction later this year on at least one site, with target occupancy by early 2020.
We understand many physician groups are interested in joint venture developments or investing into existing real estate developments. Here are the benefits we have defined for our physicians and patients.
• Beaumont can align with independent physicians and groups as patient care is increasingly moving to ambulatory care centers.
• Beaumont can work with payers to negotiate rates.
• Beaumont can further our patient and family-centered care goal by offering patients the convenience of “one stop” ambulatory care including same-day surgery and lower out-of-pocket costs than hospital based services.
• Beaumont moves further toward population health by offering lower-cost-of-care settings.
As we work together to offer the best place to practice medicine, Beaumont is offering alignment opportunities through a joint venture or having office space in one of these ambulatory sites. Your investment is important to us. It offers Beaumont more geographic reach beyond our current locations, providing more service sites for patients interested in continuing in our system. Ambulatory services offer lower-cost services than in the hospital and a way for Beaumont to negotiate lower rates for cases.
All of this leads to improved population health and reinforces our culture of patient and family-centered care.
If you would like further information or want to talk about alignment possibilities, please email Bryan Wickersham, director, ambulatory expansion at bryan.wickersham@beaumont.org.