Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care celebrates opening
May, 2009
The Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care this evening opens its doors to 600 community leaders and donors at an opening celebration event to showcase the comprehensive, state-of-the-art services and facilities it brings to the region. The new center, which will begin seeing patients on June 1, builds on decades of collaboration between Massachusetts General Hospital, one of Boston’s flagship teaching hospitals, and North Shore Medical Center (NSMC), the region’s largest community hospital with campuses in Salem and Lynn.
Located off Route 128 on Endicott Street in Danvers, the 122,000-square-foot outpatient facility includes eight day surgery suites, a breast health center, advanced diagnostic imaging services, and cardiology evaluation and diagnostic testing services. Approximately 40 percent of the space will be occupied by the NSMC Cancer Center, which is relocating from Peabody, where it has provided comprehensive cancer treatment services since 1994. Renamed the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, it will be affiliated with the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center.
Adjacent to the outpatient care center is an 80,000-square-foot medical office building, which will house of the offices of 50 primary care and specialty physicians. The medical office building will open this summer.
“This is an exciting day for both NSMC and Mass General,” said Robert Norton, President and CEO of North Shore Medical Center. “This new facility, which combines the best of community and academic medicine, will enable us to work even more closely with Mass General to provide residents of the North Shore with high quality, cost-effective care closer to home.” “Today, many procedures that once required hospitalization can be performed on an outpatient basis with less pain, smaller incisions, and faster recovery times,” said David F. Torchiana, MD, CEO and Chairman of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. “This new facility will make these outpatient procedures more accessible and available to people who live and work on the North Shore – including a growing population over the age of 60 – and will help us avoid more expensive hospital care both now and in the future.”
Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis welcomed the new outpatient center, noting that the NSMC Women’s Health Center across the street from the center has been a good community neighbor for more than 10 years. “These two hospitals chose to build in Danvers because we sit at the crossroads of the North Shore,” Marquis said. “The landmark location on Route 128 means the center will not only serve the residents of Danvers, but it will be a convenient destination for advanced outpatient care for the entire region.”
Designed by the architectural firm of Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott and built by Walsh Brothers Construction, the Mass General/North Shore Center for Outpatient Care features natural design elements such as exterior panels made from recycled materials and a two-story glass atrium. The three-story building is nestled into the natural slope of the land, lowering the overall profile of the building so that only two floors are visible from Endicott Street.
The Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, located on the lower level in the rear of the building, overlooks tidal wetlands and a healing garden containing a paved path, benches, a fountain, perennial plants and flowers, and willow trees. Research has shown that healing gardens can reduce blood pressure and help patients recover more quickly.
Located on the center’s property is the Endecott Pear Tree, the oldest living fruit tree in America – planted by John Endecott, the first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1632. Plans are underway to make the tree more accessible to public visits and viewing. Also on the site is the Osram Sylvania building. A portion of this building was demolished to make way for the new center. Osram continues to operate in the remainder of the building and has a long-term lease with Partners HealthCare, the health care system founded by Mass General and Brigham and Women’s Hospital that also includes NSMC.
Construction of the outpatient center began in September 2007. At its peak, nearly 200 skilled tradespeople worked on the site on a daily basis. The construction required 1,083 tons of structural steel, 14,400 sheets of drywall, and 484,000 (nearly 92 miles) of low-voltage internet and telephone cable.
In addition to the nearly 200 physicians credentialed by Mass General to practice at the new center, the center will employ nearly 200 full-time staff. The center will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday. No emergency or overnight services will be provided. Facilities and services to be provided at the outpatient center include the following:
- Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, providing 24 infusion bays for chemotherapy, three linear accelerators for radiation therapy with plans for a fourth, 13 exam rooms, a blood lab, and a pharmacy.
- Day Surgery, including eight state-of-the-art surgery suites with the latest technology to enable Mass General and NSMC surgeons to provide the most comprehensive care. To accommodate the special needs of children, the facility will have four dedicated pediatric surgical suites – in addition to 26 pre-operative and recovery rooms for adults.
- Breast Health Center, providing genetic screening and counseling, breast MRI, diagnostic digital mammography, stereotactic imaging, breast ultrasound, Patient Navigator support program, and outpatient breast surgery. The Breast Health Center is supported by three community-based mammography screening sites at NSMC Salem Hospital, NSMC Union Hospital in Lynn, and the NSMC Women’s Health Center in Danvers.
- Diagnostic Imaging, including PET and CT scan, MRI, X-ray, and ultrasound.
- Cardiology Services, including cardiology care, evaluation and diagnostic testing including EKG, echocardiogram, Holter monitoring, and stress testing.
- Specialty Programs in gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology (including reproductive medicine and IVF), orthopaedics, otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), pediatrics (in conjunction with Mass General for Children), surgery, and urology to be located in the adjacent medical office building.
North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) is the region’s largest community hospital with campuses in Salem and Lynn. NSMC facilities include NSMC Salem Hospital, NSMC Union Hospital in Lynn, NSMC North Shore Children’s Hospital in Salem, the NSMC Heart Center in Salem, the NSMC Women’s Health Center in Danvers, and the physician network known as North Shore Physicians Group. It is the only North Shore facility to offer a comprehensive cancer center and a sophisticated heart center offering both cardiovascular surgery and angioplasty.
Massachusetts General Hospital, established in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, where nearly all its active staff physicians hold faculty appointments. The 900-bed hospital offers sophisticated diagnostic and therapeutic care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty of medicine and surgery. Each year Mass General admits more than 45,000 inpatients and records more than 1.5 million visits in its extensive outpatient programs at its main campus and off-site facilities. Mass General conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the United States, with an annual research budget of nearly $500 million and major research centers in AIDS, cardiovascular research, cancer, cutaneous biology, medical imaging, neurodegenerative disorders, transplantation biology, and photomedicine. Mass General has consistently been named one of the nation’s top few hospitals by US News & World Report.
