Opening of UF orthopaedics building begins new era of research, patient care

University of Florida orthopaedists will have more elbow room beginning Sept. 7 with the opening of a $25 million facility where patients with a variety of bone, joint and musculoskeletal problems can be diagnosed and, in many cases, treated under a single roof. The building ranks as one of the nation’s largest and most comprehensive orthopedics and sports medicine facilities.

“Several events are planned to celebrate the building’s grand opening,” said Peter Gearen, M.D., a UF associate professor and chairman of orthopaedics and rehabilitation. “A formal dedication will be held in early 2005. The general public will be invited to an open house on Nov. 12, 2004. We hope everyone will attend and see our new home.”

The UF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute is located at the intersection of Southwest 34th Street and Hull Road. The four-story, 120,000-square-foot building also will serve as headquarters for the UF College of Medicine’s department of orthopaedics and rehabilitation.

“Clinics now located miles apart will be under one roof,” Gearen said. “We’ll have accommodation for many outpatient procedures, research labs, radiology services and academic offices for all the faculty in the same building.”

Shands HealthCare will provide occupational and physical therapy services, Gearen said. A division of UF’s radiology department will operate a diagnostic imaging center featuring X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging and computerized tomography, or CT, technology. The orthopaedics department’s inpatient surgical practice will remain at Shands at the UF.

“By bringing our outpatient programs together we’ll have additional operational efficiencies,” Gearen said. “That will be good. A central location will also be a more convenient for the patients and the physicians. We’ve worked hard to create a welcoming environment for our current patients and for new patients who are referred to us.”

The building contains several features new to the orthopaedics department, including a sophisticated human motion laboratory equipped with high-speed cameras that can record movement from every viewpoint, Gearen said.

“The Motion Analysis Laboratory will enable physicians to analyze problems ranging from neuromuscular disease to poor athletic form,” he said. “We’ll serve patients ranging from disabled children to professional athletes to grandparents rehabilitating after joint replacement surgery.”

“Once all orthopaedic faculty are housed under one roof, they are likely to interact more,” Gearen said. “Now, some of us only see each other at faculty meetings. Being together will strengthen collaboration efforts and make translation of research from ‘bench to bedside’ easier.”

The building’s site was chosen in part because it offered easy access to a major traffic artery, said A. Miles Albertson, associate director of facilities planning and construction for UF’s Health Science Center.

“The idea of having a clinical building just dictates that it has to be somewhere patients can get in and out without a lot of hassle,” said Albertson, who has served as UF’s project manager for the site for about two years. “Even though it’s a university building, it’s a business enterprise.”

Patient considerations require a fast, precisely orchestrated start-up, Gearen said. Although furnishings and equipment have been installed throughout the summer, relocation of more than 150 employees must be accomplished during the Labor Day weekend. Patients will be seen at the old locations through Friday and at the new building beginning Sept. 7. No pause in patient care is planned.

“It’s been a huge undertaking,” Gearen said. “Anything you can think of that has to be done to allow a business to be built from scratch and begin running at full speed as soon as we go in the door the first day — all of those things had to be done.”

Both Albertson and Gearen praised the administrative staffs of the UF orthopaedics and radiology departments and Shands at UF for their efforts preparing for the move. Gearen said Albertson and Doug Cruce, a project manager for builder Turner Construction Co., have been indispensable during the transition.

Gearen and other department faculty envisioned the building more than a decade ago, he said. By mid-2002 the department had arranged funding and contracted with the engineering services firm URS and Turner Construction Co. to work together as a design/build team.

Because the building will be UF’s pioneering structure on the west side of 34th Street, it was decided the architecture should complement both the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center Gainesville located next door and buildings on UF’s central campus, Albertson said.

Construction began with site preparation in January 2003, Albertson said. Total costs have reached about $25 million. Adjoining properties owned by UF may be developed in the future to provide additional health-care facilities.