WINCHESTER — The final beam went into place Wednesday on a 66,000-square-foot addition to Winchester Medical Center’s Heart & Vascular Center. Site work on the $19.8 million project began in March. The expansion is slated for completion in late 2019.
Several employees affiliated with The Heart & Vascular Center and Winchester Cardiology & Vascular Medicine signed the beam before it was put into place. The expanded facility will provide convenient access to the WMC Cardiac Catheterization Lab, Advanced Valve & Aortic Center, Heart Failure Clinic, imaging and other services.
The new four-story wing is being built perpendicular to Medical Office Building 1 on the WMC campus. It will connect with the existing 22,000-square-foot Heart & Vascular Center, which opened in 2011. Construction involved demolishing what was originally WMC’s outpatient diagnostic center and later its radiation oncology department, now located at the Valley Health Cancer Center on the north end of the campus. The general contractor for the addition is Howard Shockey & Sons, Inc., and the architect is Noelker and Hull.
James Sherwood, Valley Health’s vice president of operations and professional services, said a conference room and research suite also will be in the addition. “It’s exciting for a lot of reasons,” Sherwood said about the expansion. “We really believe it’s going to improve patient care coordination. We are going to have cardiologists, vascular surgeons, heart surgeons, thoracic surgeons … a coalition of specialists with all of the diagnostic equipment.”
The addition will house cardiopulmonary rehabilitation on the ground floor and physician offices on the three floors above for Winchester Cardiology & Vascular Medicine, Valley Health Cardiothoracic Surgeons and Valley Health Vascular Surgeons. Those offices are currently in Medical Office Buildings I and II. There also will be a laboratory draw station for patient convenience.
Judy Bible, chief administrative officer for Winchester Cardiology & Vascular Medicine, which is a partner with Valley Health, said Winchester Cardiology & Vascular Medicine plans to add three cardiologists every year over the next five years to meet the needs of the region’s growing population. “We have a strategic partnership and alignment so that we make sure that our vision for heart and vascular care is aligned,” Bible said of the partnership. “We work very closely together. With the growth of the region, we needed a new center that can offer that kind of care, so we are very excited about the building.”