Nemours is scheduled to open its new Sussex County location in a couple months, and the rollout will rely heavily on telehealth.
The pediatric health system gets its certificate of occupancy for the new Milford location next month, and it will move its primary care and senior care offices from Route 13 to the new site Nov. 9.
Nemours is also opening new specialty care, medical imaging and therapy offices at the new facility, but those openings for in-person visits have been delayed until Apr. 1 because of the pandemic.
Nemours Director of Special Projects and Integrated Medicine Colleen Davis says Nemours has been conducting about 2,000% more telehealth visits since the start of the pandemic. And many of those services will be available at the new site ahead of the Spring opening for in-person visits.
“So the way it works is we have telehealth units on mobile carts with a computer and different various devices that can be used to, for instance, look down a child’s throat, listen to their heart, and then the physician, wherever they are, can have that interactive type of visit,” said Davis.
Davis adds these visits can be held at the Milford site with the assistance of a medical tech, or remotely from the patient’s home.
Nemours’ share for the cost of construction is just under $15 million. The three story medical office sits just across the street from Bayhealth’s hospital which opened in 2018. The two structures sit on 169 acres off Route 1.
Davis says the opening will help many families struggling with transportation.
“This will be on the DART route, so we know that there’s going to be a bus stop right in front of us, whereas right where we are located on 13, I believe, for primary care they may have to walk a quarter of a mile to get there, and we’ve noticed we’ve had a lot of no-shows due to transportation,” she said.
Nemours is moving over existing workers and adding 20 new medical jobs at the new facility.
