Allegheny Health Network’s plan to build a small-format hospital in the McCandless Crossing shopping center has been approved by town council.
McCandless council voted 6-0 on Monday evening to approve a land development application submitted by Seavest Health Care Properties to construct a four-story hospital and medical office building at the intersection of Duncan Avenue and McKnight Road. Council President Kim Zachary abstained from the vote to avoid a possible conflict of interest because she works as a nurse for AHN.
The facility, which will have an emergency room and a minimum of 10 in-patient rooms, is one of four such hospitals the health network has proposed building in the region to help address lapses in the availability of medical treatment that will occur when a state-brokered consent decree expires in June 2019.
To develop the four hospitals, AHN formed a joint venture with Texas-based Emerus, a developer and operator of neighborhood hospitals. Seavest Inc., based in New York state, is the building developer working with AHN and Emerus.
The four hospitals are part of a plan AHN and Highmark Health announced last year to invest $1 billion in new facility construction and expansion and renovation of existing facilities within the next five years.
The consent decree was negotiated after the contract between Highmark and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center expired in 2014.
The decree allowed some Highmark customers to continue using UPMC doctors and hospitals until next June.
In addition to McCandless, AHN also has proposed small hospitals in Hempfield , Harmer and Brentwood.
AHN’s plans to meet the medical needs of residents in the North Hills also includes a 160-bed hospital in Pine Township. A groundbreaking for AHN Wexford Hospital, which is being built adjacent to the health network’s Wexford Health and Wellness Pavilion on Perry Highway, was held on Aug. 14.
