Butler Health System’s Health and Wellness Center at Trinity Point officially opened Friday.
“We did not want to build a 1990s cookie-cutter medical office building,” Clarion Hospital President Steven Davis said earlier this week. “We wanted it to be infused with innovation about how we deliver care not only now but in the future.
“We wanted it to be a one-stop shop, regional destination. We have over 30,000 patients in our primary care network, and that means we reach well beyond Clarion into the surrounding communities.”
Also on the first floor is a conference room for health living classes, and the building has a healthy food cafe.
“We are investing in the people of our community,” Davis said. “We have the Food Institute and the Exercise Institute. We are doing lifestyle medicine classes, food classes and cooking classes. We can also do those classes virtually.
“The whole lifestyle medicine initiative is about getting people healthy.”
The facility has a digital platform with which patients can use a smartphone to register and set up visits.
The 30-year-old family medicine residency clinic is on the second floor. The residents see over 10,000 outpatients a year.
“Many of the folks coming through the residency program have ended up as providers in western Pennsylvania,” Davis said.
The new cardiovascular center at the Health and Wellness Center is a “showcase program for the region,” according to Richard Begg, BHS medical director of cardiovascular services.
“It is an exciting and unique concept in terms of cardiology. It is bringing together all of the cardiology and some special support cardiology services under one roof,” Begg said.
According to Begg, the center will be staffed full time and also offer electrophysiology and surgical services.
“It is probably one of the only centers that I can think of in western Pennsylvania like that right now,” he said. “It is an incredibly interesting program.”
The Health and Wellness Center also is the new home of the Women’s Health Center, which opened in October and is a full-service facility.
“We will be doing all obstetric care, including ultrasound, blood work, the prenatal visits and all of our gynecological services, typical routine screening, treating patients who want to get on birth control and STD testing,” said Anie Perard, OBGYN physician and president of the medical staff at Clarion Hospital.
According to Perard, the obstetric patients will now be delivering at Butler Memorial Hospital.
“Their continuity of care, post-delivery visits, all of that takes place in our new office,” she said.
The new 3-D mammography is now in the same building.
“When they come in for their annual exams, their mammograms can be done the same day. They don’t have to get on their car and drive to another location. That is awesome,” Perard said.
Another innovation is a breast navigator, a clinical coordinator who can help the patient coordinate care.
“The navigator will be the point for the patient to all of their services so the patient can have a smooth transition into the care facilities they need,” she said.
“I think this will be great for the community.”