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With expansions completed at Excelsior Orthopaedics' Buffalo Surgery Center on Sheridan Drive as well as sites in Niagara Falls and Elma, the group is looking ahead to Orchard Park for its next capital project.
Together, the expansions have helped drive volume increases across several business lines, while boosting revenue over $100 million for the first time, a 10% increase year-over-year.
The $6 million project at 3915 Sheridan, completed at year-end, included renovations and expansion for its gastroenterology suite with more procedure rooms, as well as expansions for more orthopedic procedures.
The first two new operating rooms opened in December, with the remaining three expected to be operational by end of January, said David Uba, CEO at Excelsior.
“We started planning the expansion pre-Covid, so it’s exciting,” he said. “It was a huge undertaking and logistically challenging and complex, as we were operating at the same time.”
Demand for all procedures continues to grow, Uba said, as more types of surgeries shift to the outpatient setting away from hospital campuses.
“We were basically at capacity with a lot more surgeons wanting more time and wanting to more on an outpatient basis, and not being able to do it until we had the space,” he said.
Surgeons do about 20,000 cases per year at Excelsior's surgery centers, ranging from colonoscopy to carpel tunnel and trigger finger releases.
The expansion will allow at least a 20% increase in patient volume overall over the next few years, including more complex cases such as total joint replacement, which it started doing about eight years ago in the outpatient setting. Last year, the practice did 3,000 joint replacements, including about 600 at the surgery center - a figure that will now grow to 1,300-plus.
Excelsior’s orthopedic urgent care next door at 3925 Sheridan is also growing, with a double digit increase of 20% last year, representing Excelsior’s next fastest growing line of business. The site was ranked as the No. 4 busiest urgent care site in the region last year, with 20,553 patient visits. The company employs more than 600 employees, including 100 at the Buffalo Surgery Center.
With expansions now completed in Amherst, Niagara Falls and Elma, the next phase of Excelsior’s master plan will target the Orchard Park location on Redtail Drive, Uba said. Drawings are completed for a 10,000-square-foot expansion at the site, which will likely begin in 12-18 months.
In other health care news:
- Buffalo Medical Group has opened its new Northtowns hub site at 6950 S. Transit Road in Lockport, with 40 exam rooms providing primary care, X-ray and lab blood draw services and oncology/infusion, with specialty providers offering oncology, orthopedics, podiatry and urology. It’s the fourth location for the multispecialty practice. BMG is leasing 19,000 square feet in the Benderson Development-owned facility, which previously housed back-office space for KeyBank and First Niagara Bank.
- UBMD Physicians’ Group has merged its family medicine and internal medicine pediatrics group at UBMD Internal Medicine to form UBMD Primary Care, led by Dr. Andrea Manyon as president and CEO. The transition begins with the Conventus office downtown, with UBMD Family Medicine sites on Hopkins Road in Amherst and Sheridan Drive in Tonawanda transitioning in the coming months. Physicians in the division of addiction medicine in UBMD Family Medicine will also transition to UBMD Primary Care.
- Mercy Hospital of Buffalo is renovating its emergency department to add a second imaging room for CT equipment. The $2.2 million project at 565 Abbott Road includes reinstalling an X-ray machine in converted space adjacent to the CT area.
Physicians
| Rank | Prior Rank | Name/ prior (*new or not ranked)/ URL |
|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | UBMD Physicians' Group |
2 | 2 | Buffalo Medical Group |
3 | 3 | General Physician PC |