New $6.1 Million Building Will House a Regional Practice
By Richard Metcalf
Journal Staff Writer
A prime 2.6-acre lot near San Mateo and Interstate 25 will be home to Eye Associates of New Mexico's hub for specialized eye care not only in New Mexico but in the Southwest.
"Opthalmologists, optometrists and primary care physicians from around the state make referrals to it," said opthalmologist Arthur Weinstein, Eye Associates' board chairman. "We also see many people from Arizona, the Navajo reservation and West Texas.
"It's more of regional practice."
Construction is expected to begin this month on the 29,500-square-foot building on Harper NE near Pan American. The two-story building will have 40 examination rooms, suites for minor surgery and a retail optical shop.
When the $6.1 million project is completed in the fall, Eye Associates will close its 16,000-square-foot leased clinic at 101 Hospital Loop NE, near Jefferson and Montgomery, and relocate the operation to the new building, said chief operations officer Jim Silva.
About 60 employees will work at the new building. More jobs may be added later after two more physicians join the Eye Associates' staff in August, Silva said.
Now in its 30th year of business, Albuquerque-based Eye Associates currently has 25 opthalmologists, 10 optometrists and 346 employees. The company has 14 clinics and nine optical shops around the state.
The new clinic will be next to the Albuquerque Ambulatory Eye Surgery Center at 5901 Harper NE, which operates through a partnership of Eye Associates, Presbyterian Healthcare Services and a group of independent opthalmologists.
The clinic is also near the Presbyterian Medical Group Northside building. Proximity to the surgery center and Presbyterian building was part of the location's appeal, Weinstein said.
"It really has a medical feel," Weinstein said about the immediate area. Convenient interstate access and closeness to hotels and restaurants for out-of-town patients were other assets, he said.
"It is high visibility, but that was a side benefit," said Dr. Greg Ogawa, chief medical officer.
The recent growth of Eye Associates has resulted in part from the demand for services from an aging population, he said. Much of the growth has been in its general practice, such as basic eye exams by optometrists.
In addition, medical advances have made eye care more complex. For example, Eye Associates performs approximately 20,000 surgical procedures a year.
"Opthalmologists, in the beginning, pretty much did everything," Weinstein said. "The demand for specialization has increased dramatically so it is very difficult for a general opthalmologist to provide all of these services."
The new clinic is also designed around having an electronic medical records system— not the storage of paper records— as a way to improve patient care. Electronic records systems are gradually being installed in all Eye Associates' clinics.
"It's going to be a progressive building from the standpoint of moving records and better staff communication through computers," said principal architect Doug Majewski of the Design Group.
The new clinic's waiting rooms will be equipped with wireless Internet access. Some examination rooms will be large enough to have several physicians consulting with a patient.
The building, which will have 116 parking spaces, is designed "to move patients through efficiently, effectively and pleasantly," Majewski said. Most of the patient flow will be on the first floor.
The Eye Associates' building was designed specifically for the site between Presbyterian's Northside building and the Nativo Lodge, Majewski said.
"The coloration and form is a bridge between the Presbyterian campus and the hotel," he said.
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