UPMC opens primary and specialty care facility in Edgeworth

Sewickley area residents seeking primary and specialty care at a UPMC facility now have an option that’s closer to home.

A new UPMC Primary and Specialty Care facility opened in Edgeworth, and the healthcare giant is excited about it.

“This is what we call a UPMC outpatient center,” said Mark Sevco, president UPMC hospitals. “So, it’s UPMC primary care with UPMC sub-specialty care physicians and some diagnostic testing capabilities in the building. We have embedded primary care, and then many specialists that are going to work out of this facility.”

Outpatient consultations and services available at the new Sewickley facility include heart and vascular, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, primary care, thoracic surgery and urology.

The facility does not have an emergency department or inpatient beds.

“We’ve gotten 60,000 visits to our specialists from (the Sewickley area),” Sevco said. “So, when we looked at that, we wanted to make sure we put in an investment so that we can be here and they won’t have to travel as far for specialty care.”

The services provided at the new facility also are designed to complement UPMC Children’s Community Pediatrics, which is also located in the building at 111 Hazel Lane.

UPMC officials say it’s rare for a facility to have eight specialties together in one spot with testing offered.

“One of the things that I think is really unique about this site is that for the specialists that are here, we have all of the testing right on site,” said Jennifer Dueweke, executive administrator, UPMC Community Medicine.

“So, for cardiology we have echocardiography, ultrasound of the heart. We have stress testing that can be done right here in the office. And we’ll have vascular ultrasound and all the things that we usually need to send (patients) off-site to have,” she said.

Allowing patients to come to a facility in Sewickley and avoid the hassle of driving elsewhere is important to doctors like hand and upper extremity surgeon Thomas Hughes.

“What it allows us to do is bring this high level of specialty care to this area to make it more convenient for patients to access it,” Hughes said. “For us to come to them rather than having to travel either Downtown or to Oakland is going to make it a lot more convenient to access that level of care.”

Staffers say the new Sewickley facility allows doctors to collaborate in an efficient way.

“This is really the future as it relates to outpatient services and providing services closer to where patients live,” Sevco said.