By RANDY BARTLEY
Staff writer
Penn Highlands Healthcare is looking beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Two construction projects are moving forward, one just outside Clarion and one in Brookville.
Penn Highlands Healthcare is currently excavating the site for a two-story, 17,048 square-feet medical building in Monroe Township.
The site is along State Route 68 at the former C&K Coal Company building, adjacent to Pizza Hut.
Penn Highlands Health announced last year a $111 million System Master Facilities Plan that includes a medical arts building in Brookville.
The new Clarion building will house a QCare walk-in clinic with ancillaryservices, such as imaging and lab, according to information previously released by Penn Highlands.
The building also will be able to support virtual care to the extent that it could be called a virtual hospital.
Using innovative technology, virtual clinics willallowspecialty providers to reach out and see patients and provide care at any time from multiple locations. This will minimize the need for patients in theClarionregion to travel for specialty care.
Phase Two proposes the future addition of an approximate 10,000 square foot medical office building and a new paved access drive with a 24-foot cartway connecting the northerly end of the parking lot to the east side of State Route 68.
The medical office building in Brookville is being constructed at Penn Highlands Brookville Hospital.
The 15,000 square-feet building is two stories with about 7,500 square feet of space on each floor. It is an 11-month project that began in August and is expected to be finished by June 15.
Once completed, all of the Penn Highlands employed or affiliated physician offices currently housed in the Charles Medical Center, located off of Allegheny Boulevard, will move to the Medical Office Building.
Penn Highlands Brookville hopes to take occupancy on June 1.