Twenty-four hour care, seven days a week is coming at HealthFirst, an ambulatory care center that moved into the new Bald Mountain Regional Medical Complex and Surgical Center on May 5.
Dr. Kevin Robertson, founder of HealthFirst, said the center will double from its former size, when it was located at 1251 S. Lapeer near Dunhams.
“I opened HealthFirst in March of 1997…there was really no place in Lake Orion that you could come to without an appointment that I knew of,” said Robertson, an Oxford resident. “The new facility will bring health care under one roof. Unless you need to be hospitalized, it’s all there.”
Construction on the facility began last fall, and will be entirely completed in the coming months. The building is 58,000 square-feet, and will include HealthFirst, an out-patient clinic that will be offering 24-hours a day, seven days a week care starting June 2.
Also in the complex will be a diagnostic center, pharmacy, 6,000 square-feet of physical therapy, a laboratory, and ambulatory surgical center for outpatient and minor surgery.
“The diagnostics center will have everything from X-ray to mammograms,” Robertson said. “In addition, HealthFirst will have our own X-ray equipment. The pharmacy will service out-patient prescriptions, with the entire building being on the same phone system.”
According to Robertson, even though the complex will include separate entities, it was always meant to be run as a whole.
“We’ll have 11,000 square-feet of out-patient surgery…70 percent of surgeries are out-patient,” he added. “That will be complete in one year.”
Robertson spent nearly nine years working in the emergency room and did family practice prior to opening HealthFirst.
“There will be two separate entrances in the new building (for HealthFirst), one for trauma and one for family practice,” he said. “We’ll also have separate registration and discharge areas. The trauma room will be divided by curtains, and will have a cardiac crash cart and monitor.”
The facility has over seven examination rooms, a large conference area, an area for X-ray and an area for keeping supplies. There is also a bed and shower area in the back for physicians, who will be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“It will be physician-staffed at all times,” Robertson said. “We’re not keying down to a tech at certain times of the night.”
In addition, HealthFirst’s new facility includes a pediatric room and an ENT room, for ears, nose and throat.
“We’ll have a laboratory in the building, so we’ll process all the labs on site,” said Robertson. “Blood gets drawn here and processed here…the more complicated stuff will be sent out and back the next day.”
No expense was spared on the building, according to Robertson, which includes extensive landscaping including a “living” pond in front of the building that will include two waterfalls.
“Everything is of the best quality,” he said.
For more information on HealthFirst, now located in the Bald Mountain Regional Medical Center and Surgical Complex at 1375 S. Lapeer, call 693-9040.