TOWERING OVER THE SKYLINE AT THE VILLAGES AT BRUNSWICK FOREST AT NEARLY 50 FEET IN THE AIR, STANDS THE NEW 55,000 SQUARE FOOT, THREE-STORY EMERGEORTHO ADVANCED ORTHOPEDIC AND SPINE CENTER. CONSTRUCTION CREWS SURROUND THE STRUCTURE PUTTING ON THE FINAL TOUCHES. ITS PRESENCE IS TRANSFORMATIONAL. FROM DOCTOR VISITS TO PHYSICAL THERAPY, DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING TO ADVANCED SURGERY, THE NEW FACILITY WILL MAKE ORTHOPEDIC, SPINE AND PAIN MANAGEMENT CARE MORE CONVENIENT THAN EVER FOR AREA RESIDENTS.
Housed on the first floor of the building will be Brunswick County’s very first ambulatory orthopedic surgery center and the first surgical center in the region dedicated to orthopedics. Scheduled to open in early July for all orthopedic care followed by the opening of the surgery center in early 2020, the new EmergeOrtho at Brunswick Forest will provide much needed accessible and cost-effective care.
“The number of patients who live in Brunswick County and are being cared for at our Wilmington locations continues to grow, so they look forward to the added convenience. We are thrilled with this investment in and commitment to the community and appreciate the support of our patients,” says EmergeOrtho CEO, Stephen DeBiasi.
DeBiasi has played a hands-on role in the design and construction process. Measuring 55,578 square feet to be exact, the new EmergeOrtho building has close to 10 inch solid concrete walls with steel rebar reinforcement embedded in the wall panels. Contractor Trace Adams of Adams Southeastern Construction cast the wall panels on-site and put them in place using the “Tilt-Up” construction method.
“It’s been an interesting construction process with the Tilt-Up construction. You drive by before construction and it’s nothing more than cleared land, as flat as this table…a week later it’s a three- story building,” says DeBiasi.
DeBiasi says the decision to construct a facility of this magnitude was in response to population growth and the aging of the population. According to the US Census report, more than 14,000 new residents moved into Brunswick County within the first seven months of 2018, beating out New Hanover and Pender counties. The new building allows EmergeOrtho to consolidate all of its Leland area locations, currently at capacity, into one comprehensive facility dedicated to orthopedics and spine, where treatments, procedures and surgeries are available under one roof. “We will grow into the facility as the population continues to grow,” says DeBiasi.
“A larger comprehensive facility with more exam rooms will allow patients to access a broader range of orthopedic specialty services more quickly,” says Jennifer Loper, EmergeOrtho marketing director.
“When many orthopedic practitioners are together in one place, a colleague just down the hall can be called in, ‘hey, I’m looking at a patient with an elbow injury…can you take a quick look at it?’ Such collaboration can happen easily when we are in the same building,” says DeBiasi.