Groundbreaking held for new State College area hospital
PATTON TOWNSHIP, PA – Officials held a Tuesday ceremonial groundbreaking for a new hospital to be constructed just off Interstate 99, just outside State College.
Penn Highlands Healthcare has begun construction on the $70 million facility, the site the Patton Town Center along Colonnade Drive. Anticipated completion date is the spring of 2024.
The hospital and medical center will be the ninth for Penn Highlands. Mark Norman, the company’s chief operating officer, was among the speakers at the Tuesday groundbreaking: “This is a momentous day for Penn Highlands Healthcare and the Centre County community. While Penn Highlands has eight hospitals in northwest, central and southwestern Pennsylvania, today’s groundbreaking marks the first time we are designing and building a truly patient-centric hospital to meet today’s health care needs in the area.”
The site located to the rear of a Cracker Barrell and Sheetz will house a three-story, 82,000-square-foot hospital and a two-story, 32,000-square-foot medical office building.
The new structure will be geared more towards outpatient care, according to Norman: “People are receiving advanced care beyond the walls of hospitals and are becoming more reliant on outpatient care. Twenty years ago when someone needed a diagnosis, sometimes that required inpatient admission and lots of testing that had to be done on an inpatient basis. Today… the advances in outpatient technology and less invasive care which mostly can be done on an outpatient basis [are] why we’re excited about this facility.
The hospital portion is to include an emergency department with 10 private treatment rooms and a trauma room; a surgical department with three high-tech operating suites and an endoscopy procedure room; 18 private inpatient rooms; a medical imaging department; and a pulmonary function lab for screening diagnosis and treatment.
The medical facility will be the first that Penn Highlands has constructed from the ground up. Other hospitals in the system include those located in Tyrone, Huntingdon, Clearfield and DuBois.
