MedStar Health’s downtown ambulatory care center is a go.
Work is expected to begin in early 2015 on the $26 million ambulatory care facility in the downtown D.C. Lafayette Centre after health regulators approved it last week, officials said.
Lafayette Center is located between the 1100 blocks of 20th and 21st streets NW near the Farragut West Metro stop.
According to the application approved as part of the District’s Certificate of Need process, MedStar will occupy 97,500 square feet of leased space for outpatient rehabilitation, diagnostic imaging, ambulatory, primary and specialty care.
MedStar plans to relocate two primary care practices, a cardiology specialist, a men’s and women’s health clinic, a bone, sport and joint center and an ambulatory surgery unit to the new location. MedStar also wants to add a diagnostic imaging suite that will include a CT scanner and MRI and other radiology equipment. It also plans to add rehabilitation services and a laboratory.
The clinic will be the center of a hub-and-spoke network of clinics MedStar plans. In MedStar’s application, focus groups of potential patients said they were time-constrained, interested in convenience to Metro and in timing their appointments in the early morning, evening hours or during lunchtime. The original application estimated the cost of the entire network to be $27.5 million.
For its next steps, MedStar will begin design work with user groups before starting construction in the first quarter of next year. It is planned to open by June 2016.
