Park Avenue Medical Center opens in Trumbull

Yale New Haven Health cut the ribbon Tuesday, May 3 on a new outpatient medical center in Trumbull. Residents of eastern Fairfield County will have greater access to a higher level and greater array of outpatient services with opening of the Park Avenue Medical Center (PAMC), just off Merritt Parkway exit 47. The three story, 100,000-square-foor center at 5520 Park Avenue combines new and existing services provided on the same campus by Bridgeport Hospital, Smilow Cancer Hospital, Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and Northeast Medical Group. Nearly 90 new permanent jobs have been added at the site, bringing the total to almost 200. “This is an exciting and historic day,” said Yale New Haven Health President and CEO Marna P. Borgstrom to an audience of over 300 at the opening ceremony. “I’m proud of the wide spectrum of care that will be offered at Park Avenue Medical Center thanks to the collaboration of our system entities.” “Today, the vision of a state-of-the-art, comprehensive outpatient campus in the Bridgeport area has come to fruition,” said Bridgeport Hospital President and CEO William M. Jennings. “From CT scans to colonoscopies, from clinical trials to compassionate care, from outpatient surgery to an outstanding patient- and family experience, Park Avenue Medical Center has it all.” The buildings on the Park Avenue campus are being leased by Yale New Haven Health from Trumbull-based Sound Development LLC. The general contractor for the new building was Gilbane Inc. and the architect was Shepley Bulfinch. “With Park Avenue Medical Center, and together with our partners in the Yale New Haven Health, we take a giant leap forward,” said Newman Marsilius III, chair of the Bridgeport Hospital board of directors. “The Bridgeport Hospital service area has its first comprehensive, multispecialty outpatient campus. Impressively, it was completed on time and on budget.” “This is an exciting day for Trumbull and one of the proudest days of my administration,” said Trumbull First Selectman Timothy M. Herbst in acknowledging the positive impact of the new center. “What Yale New Haven Health is doing is important – growing jobs and helping the economy – but you’re also doing God’s work – healing people.” Yale New Haven Health began building services at the campus in 2012 with the construction of Bridgeport Hospital’s Trumbull Radiation Oncology Center. A Smilow Cancer Care Center, offering medical and surgical oncology services, including chemotherapy and greater access to cancer clinical trials, opened at the Trumbull site in September 2014 along with a 478-space parking garage. Other services on the campus include an outpatient antenatal testing center, laboratory draw station, diagnostic radiology services, an expanded Norma Pfriem Breast Center, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital pediatric specialty center and affiliated physician offices. The new building adds outpatient surgery; gastroenterology suites for digestive disease treatment; laboratory, pharmacy, nutrition and counseling services, and rehabilitation services including physical and occupational therapy. “Thanks to careful planning by a dedicated multidisciplinary system team over 13 months, the move-in process went exceptionally smoothly, considering this was one of the most ambitious and complex new building initiatives in the Bridgeport Hospital and Yale New Haven Health in years,” said Gina Calder, Bridgeport Hospital executive director of Clinical Services, who oversaw the occupancy of the new building. The centerpiece of the Park Avenue campus is the Norma Pfriem Healing Garden, funded in part by a $500,000 naming gift from the Norma F. Pfriem Foundation. The garden is accessible from the Smilow Care Center in the new building, which also has a terrace where patients undergoing chemotherapy can enjoy the view. Key to the Park Avenue Medical Center is its patient- and family-centered model of care, as underscored by the recent appointment of Bridgeport Hospital Director of Patient Experience and Volunteer Services Daniel Walsh as the center’s director, in charge of day-to-day operations. The project also resulted in extensive improvements to the Merritt Parkway Exit 47 interchange, including roundabouts to enhance safety and traffic flow. Project costs, including the garage, interchange enhancements and neighborhood drainage improvements were $96.8 million. Long-term financing was provided by TIAA-CREF. In addition to the Norma Pfriem Foundation, philanthropic support for the project was provided through the Bridgeport Hospital Foundation by the Bridgeport Hospital Auxiliary, DeMattia Charitable Foundation and Klein Family Foundation. Corporate sponsors for opening week events included Patriot Bank and VITAS Healthcare.

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