
DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704250286

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  164 lines

TO YOUR HEALTH!NEW MEDICAL AND WELLNESS FACILITIES ARE BUILT, ARE BEING BUILT OR ARE PLANNED FOR THE HIGH-GROWTH AREA WHERE CHESAPEAKE, SUFFOLK AND PORTSMOUTH BOUNDARIES BLUR.

SHANNON MOSELY NEVER expected a mop and bucket to be tools of the trade when she accepted the position of administrator at Lakeview Medical Center's new Churchland office. But when a leaking pipe flooded a back corridor just as the building was ready to open late in January, Mosely pitched in to help out - and dry out.

Fortunately the leak was a one-time occurrence and most days since then have gone more smoothly for Mosely as well as for the physicians, nurses, technicians, patients and families who fill the building's 18,500 square feet of sun-filled office and reception space.

The new facility - at Route 17 and College Drive - modeled on a smaller scale after the Lakeview Medical Center near downtown Suffolk, includes an urgent care center, physicians' offices, laboratories, X-ray facilities, and a pharmacy.

The clinic is just one of several new care facilities that will bring expanded health care services into the heart of a burgeoning area where the Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and Suffolk city lines blur, giving visitors reason to wonder when they are in the Churchland section of Portsmouth, the Western Branch section of Chesapeake, or the Bennett's Creek section of Suffolk.

Obici Hospital, Chesapeake General Hospital and Bon Secours Maryview Hospital, are all extending their presence in the area. Among the new facilities currently in the building stage are two assisted living centers, a fitness center, and expanded physicians' offices. Planned, but with ground yet unbroken, are a rehabilitation center and an ambulatory surgical and diagnostic center.

Lakeview Medical Center-Churchland: When a trio of Portsmouth pediatricians, Dr. Douglas B. Gregory, Dr. Phillip R. Thomason, and Dr. Frank S. Mancuso, affiliated with Lakeview Medical Center, they anticipated closing the Churchland and Mid-City Portsmouth offices where they had practiced for years to move into the new center's spacious pediatric unit.

The move gave them separate waiting rooms for sick and well children fronting a suite of offices and examining rooms. ``The idea of two separate waiting rooms has gotten rave reviews from parents,'' Mike Stout, Lakeview's chief executive officer, said.

``Now that we can all practice together from the same office, it makes for a better rotation,'' Gregory said, adding that the pediatricians have been able to extend their office hours to 7:30 p.m. on weeknights.

Parents tell Gregory that they like the convenience of having labs, X-rays facilities, and a pharmacy in the same location as his office. ``When they finish here they can hop back in the car, snap their child back into his car seat and head right home.''

The center is also home to an obstetrics and gynecology unit, an allergy specialist, an ear, nose and throat specialist and rotating specialists in cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, and rheumatology.

Lifestyle Health and Fitness Center, a skeleton of girders and beams rising just off Taylor Road in Western Branch, hints at what soon will be a two-story, 44,000-square-foot fitness palace.

Becky Maples, hospital vice president for planning and marketing, said a fitness center is a natural extension for Chesapeake General.

``I think as long as the hospital has been in business, we have recognized that prevention and wellness are some of the core things we need to be involved in,'' Maples said.

Scheduled to open this fall, the Chesapeake

General Hospital fitness center will offer equipment for strength training and cardiovascular fitness, a six-lane, 25-meter pool, personal trainers and exercise programs, nutritional counseling, physical therapy, and health education and screening programs. After a set on one of the six outdoor tennis courts or a lap around the indoor track, members can cool down in locker rooms with private showers, a family changing room, child care and play areas, a steam room and a therapy pool.

Chesapeake General already has a similar fitness center near the hospital on Battlefield Boulevard, so why another?

``I think it's distance,'' Maples said. ``Studies have shown that people will not travel `X' amount of miles to exercise. And people who come here usually have to come at least two or three times a week.''

Maples said a hospital-owned fitness center is geared toward ``the kind of person who doesn't feel as comfortable in a place like Bally's; maybe a little older, maybe looking for the affiliation with a health-care organization.''

About 20 to 25 percent of the total membership will enroll for the physical-rehabilitation services, but Maples said the hospital hopes that those clients will stay on to use the workout services on a regular basis.

Chesapeake Meadows, an assisted living home developed by J & C Management Group, Inc. of Portsmouth, will be built on Poplar Hill Road, just off Route 17 and behind the Poplar Hill Medical Center, a medical office complex. Designed to offer its 60 residents warm, homelike surroundings in private or semi-private rooms, the residence includes some unusual amenities like an outdoor barbecue pit for social gatherings.

A 16-bed Alzheimer's unit with its own nursing station, day/dining room and an enclosed patio has been planned and decorated with guidance from the Alzheimer's Association to give residents a sense of security and freedom. Wristbands, part of the Wander Guard security system, will help monitor residents in the special unit.

According to Charles R. Ciccotti, president of J & C, the ground-breaking will take place by early summer.

Province Place of Maryview, a 66-unit, assisted living center, will welcome 78 residents to its community of a half dozen pods, designed to capture a neighborhood feeling. Each pod will contain 10 to 12 private or semi-private suites, consisting of a bedroom, sitting area, and kitchenette, as well as a community living room and a country kitchen. ``It gets away from the institutionalized way of caring for the elderly,'' Eileen Malo, vice president of continuing care services, said, adding that assisted living homes are a good living situation for semi-independent folks who need assistance with only two to four acts of daily living such as cooking or bathing.

Province Place will offer an on-site beauty shop, gift shop, chapel and a woodworking shop. The facility also will include an Alzheimer's Unit with an enclosed courtyard.

With a groundbreaking planned this month, Province Place will be built on High Street West (Route 17) on the former site of Churchland High School.

North Suffolk Family Medicine opened two years ago on Route 17 in Bennett's Creek under the auspices of Obici Hospital. Staffed by Dr. Lynn Stockman, a family-care physician, the center has drawn so many patients that it is expanding. Scheduled to be completed in two phases, the expansion will enlarge the waiting area and create more exam rooms and a consulting room to house an additional family practice physician who will probably join the staff this summer.

Bon Secours Maryview has planned for several years to build a rehabilitation facility on the grounds of the Bon Secours Nursing Care Center just off Route 17 in Bennett's Creek. With the acquisition of Portsmouth General and DePaul Hospitals, each of which had its own rehabilitation unit, those plans were redrawn. In May, Maryview will file a request for a certificate of need with the state for a facility in Bennett's Creek that will transfer the 25-bed acute rehabilitation unit from Portsmouth General to the grounds of the nursing home where a sub-acute rehab unit is already in place. Malo gave late 1997 as the target date for ground breaking.

Maryview Ambulatory Surgery Center and Diagnostic Center: In October, 1996, Maryview Hospital filed a request for a certificate of need with the state to build an 19,000 square-foot ambulatory surgery center and a 10,000 square-foot diagnostic center adjacent to each other at a site on Lynn Drive in Bennett's Creek, near the Bon Secours Nursing Care Center. The proposed surgery center would be equipped for a variety of out-patient surgeries with six operating rooms. The diagnostic center would contain MRI, CAT scanning, ultrasound, mammography and radiology equipment. It would offer a wide range of diagnostic services. An answer from the state department of health is expected in late 1997. If the answer is positive, construction would begin early in 1998. MEMO: Staff writer Matt Dolan contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by JOHN H. SHEALLY

Dr. Douglas B. Gregory, one of a trio of pediatricians practicing at

Lakeview Medical Center's Churchland office, examines Victoria as

her father Sean Dunn cradles her. The new 18,500-square foot

facility is located at Route 17 and College Drive.

This north (side) elevation is an architect's rendering of the

44,000-square foot Lifestyle Health and Fitness Center being built

just off Taylor Road in Western Branch.

This archtect's rendering depicts Chesapeake Meadows, an assisted

living home to be built on Poplar Hill Road.

Lakeview Medical Center on Route 17 and College Drive has an urgent

care center, physicians' offices, laboratories,

X-ray facilities, and a pharmacy.