When the Saints Dermatology Center of Excellence opens to patients in January, the 9,100-square-foot facility at 9720 N. Broadway will mark the fulfillment of one simple, yet ambitions goal. “We wanted to create a group of dermatologists who can provide the best service in this region,” says medical director Renee Grau, M.D. “We want to be an all-encompassing, comprehensive health care center for dermatology.”
It has been a lengthy process – Grau first began talking about the idea in 2009 – but Saints Dermatology is taking the time to do it right. Ground was broken in April of this year on a building that will marry the expertise of the group’s health care providers with the technology and efficiency to provide the best service possible. “To accomplish our goal, we needed to have a facility that can accommodate it,” Grau says. “We wanted to synergize, and to create a community where we are sharing ideas.”
Grau and company desired a physical location that would be easily accessible to all parts of the metro area – hence the plot of land on Broadway Extension north of Britton Road. In researching possible designs for the new building, they turned to Tulsa Dermatology Group as a model, eventually hiring the architect who designed that group’s facility: New Mexico-based John Laur of the firm Dekker/Perich/Sabatini. Laur specializes in health care design… and is the son of a dermatologist. The new center is being built by Beacon Fine Homes and Traywick Construction.
Efficiency is a theme that surfaces repeatedly in the design for the Saints Dermatology Center of Excellence. “Excellent care is efficient care,” says Grau. “We wanted a facility to combine patient comfort, excellent care and efficiency, so that patients are not kept waiting long, and we have more time with them. Instead of having a line of exam rooms where the provider walks up and down the line, we will have a different system. For example, my three exam rooms will be together, and I’ll only be a couple of steps away at any time. The nurses’ station will also be only steps away.”
The new center will house five physicians, one physician’s assistant and more than 25 support staffers, who will utilize cutting-edge technology to provide excellent patient care. A light therapy unit will be used to treat psoriasis, eczema, morphea and lymphoma of the skin. The facility’s cosmetic unit will offer comprehensive, dermatologist-supervised cosmetic procedures, including laser therapy and Ultherapy – that’s a new type of non-surgical, non-invasive procedure for the face that uses ultrasound and the body’s own natural healing process to lift, tone and tighten loose skin, and Saints Dermatology will have one of only two such instruments in Oklahoma.
Not one, but two Mohs micrographic surgery suites will be available for treatment of skin cancers. These specialties, all housed under one roof, are in addition to general and medical dermatology units. The Saints network is a leader in telemedicine, and this facility will be no exception; a teledermatology suite is set to link the Oklahoma City office with all corners of the state.
With the new center acting as the hub, Saints Dermatology will continue to operate satellite clinics as well, in the Midtown area, Midwest City and Enid. Another clinic will soon be in operation at 13128 N. MacArthur to serve the far northwest Oklahoma City region until the new center opens.
As with any project of this scale, there have been hurdles to overcome and myriad details to oversee. But Dr. Grau has kept her eyes on the end result and the capability for exceptional patient care that the center will bring to Oklahoma. “Anything a patient needs related to dermatology, they should be able to do in this facility,” she says. “The best part of this is seeing a vision come to fruition, a vision that will be of service to other people. Seeing how we could come up with a facility that will meet those needs, creating it from nothing, is very rewarding.”
With its location facing Broadway Extension and 9,100 square feet of space, the new facility will offer patients accessibility, comfort and a new standard in dermatological health care.
