GREENFIELD — For people with heart and vascular problems, as simple a task as just getting around can prove to be quite a chore.
Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield held that fact in mind when designing their newly relocated and renovated heart and vascular, infectious diseases, pulmonary and sleep medicine practice, which officially opened Monday.
The new offices, moved from their former location in the multi-specialty suite on Sanderson Street to the main hospital, are now situated right next to the cardiopulmonary testing department, making it much easier for patients to undergo testing and then see a physician during the same visit, in the same location.
“All of our cardiopulmonary testing is right in this building, so if someone needs a stress test for example, it’s (now) two or three doors right down the hall,” said interim president Dr. Thomas Higgins. “So it’s less travel for the patient, and it also makes things more efficient for our physicians to supervise those tests, they don’t have to walk all the way over from Sanderson Street.”
The hospital said the new location will also help with patient throughput by offering more flexibility in scheduling and the ability to expand hours with a cardiologist on site.
Higgins said the space opened up at Sanderson Street by the move will allow them to bring a wider variety of sub-specialists from Springfield to Greenfield.
The project cost about $200,000, according to Sean Gouvin, Baystate Health’s facilities, planning and engineering operations director.
“We’re very proud to inaugurate this revised facility here in Greenfield,” said Higgins during a ribbon cutting event Monday evening. “It represents a lot of investment by Baystate Health in keeping care local here in the community.”
Dr. John Schreiber, the president of Baystate Medical Practices and Chief Physician Executive of Baystate Health said the company’s cardiovascular group is nationally recognized as the third busiest in the state.
“This is a hospital health system on the move up here in Franklin,” he said, noting that the renovations will allow the hospital to keep some of the more complicated patients local instead of having to refer them elsewhere. “It’ll keep them here in Greenfield, at Franklin, where they can be cared for in a beautiful new facility.”
Dr. Aaron Kugelmass, Baystate Health’s chief of cardiology and vice president of the heart and vascular program, said the move will add more continuity to the care the hospital provides.
“This represents a culmination of a dream to bring standardized national care here,” he said. “In the past it’s been focus on Springfield, but this is bringing it locally to the residents of Greenfield. It’s so much closer to the patients in the hospital.”
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