Mount Nittany Health intends to build a new outpatient medical center at the planned Toftrees West development in Patton Township, the Centre County-based health system announced on Tuesday.
Plans for the range of services and overall size of the multi-story facility are still to be finalized, according to a news release. A major reason for the new center, however, is the need to expand capacity for the 170-provider Mount Nittany Physician Group, which officials said has outgrown its current 17 locations in Centre, Huntingdon, Clearfield and Mifflin counties.
“We are pleased to add this new facility and to further enhance the services we provide to the community,” Mount Nittany Health CEO Kathleen Rhine said in a statement. “We continue to welcome highly-talented physicians and providers to our health system and our community. We need additional space to keep growing. This facility, in conjunction with the investments we are making at Mount Nittany Medical Center, support our mission of healthier people, a stronger community.”
The new facility is expected to open in late 2023.
“The addition of the outpatient medical center will allow Mount Nittany Health to meet the increased demand for patient-centered care and the growth of the Mount Nittany Physicians Group as we bring even more diverse services and highly-skilled providers to our health system,” Dr. Upendra Thaker, Mount Nittany Health chief medical officer, said in a statement. “This will have a positive impact on the health of our community with better access to high quality care and services in a single location.”
It’s the latest in a $50 million series of ongoing facilities investments for Mount Nittany Health. In September, the health system announced that planning had begun for construction of a new “bed tower” at Mount Nittany Medical Center that will include private patient rooms, along with “community, clinical and support service enhancements.”
Mount Nittany plans to renovate the imaging department at the medical center in phases over the next two years, resulting in a newly designed diagnostic pavilion on the main floor of the hospital. The medical center also will see the addition of a new inpatient dialysis unit, which is being developed this fall.
Already underway at the hospital are major expansions of the women and children’s unit and the clinical laboratory. Both projects are scheduled for completion in spring 2022.
The new outpatient medical center announced on Tuesday is the first specific project to be unveiled for Toftrees West, an anticipated 700-acre development identified in the master plan for the Toftrees Planned Community as being just north of I-99, west of the Toftrees golf course and east of the Cedar Cliff residential development.
In 2014, the decades-old Toftrees master plan was revised to indicate future development for the west end of the property that would include about 2,500 residential units — a mix of single-family and multi-family residences — as well as retail, restaurant, hotel and office space with a town center and parkland areas.
A 2017 update included an estimated timeline once initial construction began, with multiple phases to be built over the course of 30 years. It noted that timeline would depend on considerations such as market demands and transportation infrastructure, including the widening of Waddle Road and the Interstate 99/Route 322 off-ramp there, which was completed in 2018.
In April, Toftrees Development LLC received a $2.4 million state grant to construct Masters Boulevard and an extension of Waddle Road, which will provide access to the new development.
The Mount Nittany center will be the second new health care facility in Patton Township in the coming years. Penn Highlands Healthcare received approval from the township in April to construct a three-story, 82,000-square-foot micro-hospital and 32,000-square-foot, two-story office building on the northwest side of the Patton Town Center development, near Waddle Road and Colonnade Boulevard.
