New San Carlos medical center opening: Palo Alto Medical Center campus caps years of planning

“The healing environment should not give patients the sense they are sick,” said Dr. Ali Shafaie.

The 192,000-square-foot outpatient medical center visible from Highway 101 includes an urgent care center, an outpatient surgery center, laboratory and digital imaging services but at first glance resembles more a high-end hotel. The design reflects nature from the drought-resistance living roof to the recycled materials and photographs of local sites that adorn walls. The public art sculpture “Three Gates” stands outside the main entrance. A wooden bench made from a single tree snakes through the glass-walled bridge between the lobby and the urgent care clinic. Visitors will be greeted by volunteers and can navigate using signs or a smartphone application they download. The same application allows patients to even check wait times.

Patient comfort is key from the MRI room where colored lighting can be changed by preference and changing areas for procedures have dim light and modesty curtains. Patient rooms slide open rather than swing to better accommodate wheelchairs.

The $230 million San Carlos Center includes an urgent care clinic and will initially house 75 physicians and 220 medical support staff but Shafaie said it has room for up to 120 doctors. PAMF officials anticipate 140,000 patient visits the first year alone. While a range of services will be available, the center will specialize in orthopedics.

The size of the facility may mislead some into thinking the center is a hospital, Shafaie said.

And plans for a future 94-bed hospital adjacent to the center do exist but even then Shafaie said the focus will be on performing as much care on an outpatient basis as possible. The new facility will perform some procedures that previously were only done in a hospital, such as endoscopic ultrasound, and brings others like CT scans and other imaging all under one roof.

“It’s like one-stop shopping,” said orthopedic surgeon Dr. Andrew Haskell.

Doing so not only makes the delivery of care more efficient but also saves patients from traveling to multiple facilities or down to the Palo Alto campus, Shafaie said.

Shafaie previously worked at the PAMF clinic in Redwood Shores which, along with a Redwood City location, are now shuttered and moved to San Carlos. Shafaie called the move bittersweet for the staff there because they were truly a family delivering care in a “quaint” clinic but said everybody is also excited to settle into the bigger, more modern center.

On Friday, employees unpacked boxes and set up equipment. Computers were tested and inside pre-op rooms carefully folded gowns and plastic wrapped devices lay waiting for patients on never before used tables. The new center is a chance to make it their own from the get-go, said nurse Melody States, executive director of ambulatory surgery centers throughout PAMF.

“It’s like giving birth to a new surgery center baby,” she said while standing in a cheerfully painted staff lounge.

That baby was a long time coming.

Public planning process

The plan for a new medical center began a dozen years ago and went through several tweaks over a four-year span to appeal to San Carlos officials and residents worried about potential traffic snarls and an oversaturation of medical options in the area. The original plan by PAMF for San Carlos was a $550 million complex involving a 110-bed hospital, outpatient clinic and medical offices and 1,000-space parking garage. In 2007, the blueprint dropped to a 91-bed hospital with 120 on-site doctors which, along with a 50-year financial agreement with the city, led to its approval. The goal was completion in 2012, however in March 2009, Sutter Health put several capital projects including the San Carlos Center on hold because of the economy.

In November 2010, the Sutter Health Board of Directors gave the green light to start again. Some cleanup efforts of the site — home of a former microwave tube manufacturer — were done even as the project was paused but more work began in January 2011 on the 18.1-acre parcel. That April, the project got the final go-ahead when the state water board found the environmental remediation requirements properly met and a month later, the project broke ground.

Becoming a reality

David Jury, PAMF’S vice president of business planning and development, said he never doubted the center would become a reality but even after having built several such facilities noted it’s still exciting. Watching the first patients trickle in Monday, Jury said he wouldn’t be surprised to get a little emotional.

The facility already has 50 appointments scheduled for its first week, Shafaie said.

Those patients and other visitors needn’t worry about parking. The center includes a 1,115-stall garage, made that big to accommodate both the existing center’s needs and that of the future hospital. Other design elements were also made with the hospital in mind, such as a corner where a connector will bridge the two buildings, and the eventual removal of the two operating rooms from the outpatient center. Food service was always expected to be in the hospital so a vending area was added to the center. The location of departments is also predicated on how the hospital was originally envisioned. For example, the intensive care unit was to be on the third floor of the hospital so pulmonary care was situated on a corresponding floor in the center.

Individual offices are also a thing of the past. Instead, open desks and work areas more closely resemble a tech company.

“Medical is changing quite a bit and moving more to a team approach,” Shafaie said.

The open space is meant to foster collaboration and break down any hierarchy. Conversations requiring privacy can be held behind doors in team rooms.

As employees scrambled Friday with final moving and setup preparations, Shafaie said the years of work was worth it.

“It’s finally here,” he said.

But there might be one thing left to do.

Shafaie said one physician joked that the center is so nice he will need to get a new wardrobe to work there.

A grand opening celebration is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22 at the San Carlos Center, 301 Industrial Road, San Carlos. The open house will include tours, entertainment and healthy snacks.

Hours and more information on the center is available at http://www.pamf.org/sancarlos.

michelle@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 102