CLAREMONT — Valley Regional Hospital is preparing to welcome patients to its new facility, built from the ground up in a $19.5 million project.
Different medical departments will now operate under one roof in an effort to increase collaboration and improve the patient and staff experience.
“By coming into one building, we can be more efficient,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Juliann Barrett said Wednesday at the hospital.
The Michael and Sheila Satzow Health Center, located across the street from the hospital’s emergency department, will offer primary care, imaging, orthopedics, OB-GYN, midwifery, phlebotomy, podiatry, and cardiology and vascular services in a more accessible location.
Outpatient care with Valley Regional, which is affiliated with Dartmouth Health, has previously operated across multiple locations — with the hospital and urgent care at 243 Elm St. and primary care at 241 Elm St and 5 Dunning St.
Staff identified a need for new clinic space years ago, said Barrett. The older buildings have been grandfathered in but don’t meet current needs, due to narrow hallways, no automatic doors and more upkeep required as time passes.
Project planning began about four years ago, and the hospital wrapped up its 18-month construction phase this summer.
Now that the various departments won’t be spread across three spots, patients can expect more efficient care. When someone finishes seeing their clinician, they can have their labs done on site.
The 25,000-square-foot facility will help increase collaboration between subspecialists, who can now walk down the hall to speak with colleagues as opposed to contacting them by phone, hospital officials said. In some cases, they can even hand a patient off to a physician who practices a different specialty.
The idea was to bring all primary care practices under one roof, and with those also came the integrated behavioral health team and embedded pharmacist. They also decided to add orthopedics, which brought radiology.
Including women’s care with an OB-GYN department was another priority.
“It felt appropriate to bring them in and then be able to give them a bigger space in order to meet the needs of women in our community,” said Barrett.
Many exam rooms are interchangeable across the various medical disciplines, with “different doctors in the same rooms in different ways,” said Valley Regional CEO Dr. Matthew Foster.
The facility offers large workspace rooms and a central open area to promote spontaneous interactions among staff.
Of the previous buildings, two are owned by the hospital and the other at Dunning Street has a lease coming to an end in October. The owned buildings will likely be repurposed to support the main hospital, such as a medical records facility, which will free up even more space.
Foster said that with a new work environment and work pattern, there may be a sense of unease at first.
“Understandably, people are anxious and nervous,” said Foster.
There were no layoffs sparked by the move, Dartmouth Health spokeswoman Elissa Borden confirmed Thursday.
In terms of informing patients, Dartmouth Health is using an online portal and text messaging to let patients know that, effective Tuesday, their appointments are at the new location and address.
According to Foster, the project was on time and under budget.
Alan Owens, the senior facilities director who managed the project, said a new medical building has been in discussion for decades.
“Valley had kind of saved its pennies to enable this project to move forward,” said Owens.
The design effort started in 2022 and since then, the project has been a full-time job for Owens. Thinking about the design, the No. 1 goal was consolidation.
“We were out of date on just about every front,” said Owens.
One challenge was that the site sat on 10 feet of rock, which required over two months of blasting. Prepping the site cost $2 million alone, but there was no other level property adjacent to the hospital.
Though $22.5 million was authorized for the project, Owens believes it will fall closer to $19.5 million. Funding was split between capital designated by the Valley Regional Health board, a bond issued by Dartmouth Health, and donor funds– including a $1 million gift from Michael and Sheila Satzow, said Borden.
Staff is moving in, and the first official day of operation is Tuesday. The facility is prepared to welcome up to 260 patients a day, which is an increase from the typical 175 patients across the clinics transferring over, said Borden.
“Actually seeing the community in here, seeing patients being cared for, that’s what’s gonna make it complete for me,” said Owens.
