Duke Realty buys pair of buildings on Pill Hill
Released: 8/7/2007
Atlanta Business Chronical - Medical Alert
Duke Realty Corp.'s new health-care division is making its first splash in the Atlanta market.
BremnerDuke Healthcare Real Estate recently acquired Center Pointe I and II office buildings, including 4 acres of surrounding property, in the "Pill Hill" area at Georgia 400 and Interstate 285, where Saint Joseph's Hospital, Northside Hospital, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and other medical service providers are centered.
The buildings, which are a combined 364,000 square feet and primarily house software, technology and other general office tenants, were purchased from Perimeter 400.
The transaction was valued at nearly $45 million, according to Databank Inc.
Center Pointe I and II will be converted into medical offices with tenants that could include medical specialists such as oncologists, orthopedists and obstetricians who will be working with nearby hospitals.
BremnerDuke is best known for developing health-care real estate in the Midwest, but since it was purchased earlier this year by Indianapolis-based Duke the firm has continued to branch out to other markets including Chicago and Dallas.
Atlanta presented a big opportunity, said Deeni Taylor, executive vice president of BremnerDuke Healthcare.
"Atlanta is growing as fast as any medical marketplace in the United States," he said. "It's being driven by tremendous growth in the population, particularly in the suburbs, and the medical community is responding to that growth."
The Center Pointe acquisition is expected to be a catalyst for BremnerDuke, possibly opening doors to future deals with metro Atlanta hospitals that want to expand services or doctor's groups to off-campus office sites. Meanwhile, BremnerDuke will be carrying out upgrades and renovations to Center Pointe in the coming months as it prepares to house its newest health-care tenants as early as January.
Fewer patient days
Grady Memorial Hospital, which is losing at least $3 million a month and heading toward insolvency, is at least making headway on cutting costs to take care of its patients.
Grady has reduced its length of stay -- an industry term for how long patients remain in the hospital -- to 6.6 days, down from 6.9 in 2006, a matter of hours.
"We've put a lot of concentration into this effort," said Grady's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Curtis Lewis. "We've formed a special committee to look at the issue." Length of stay is a challenge for any hospital and a big impact on day-to-day operating costs -- sometimes thousands of dollars to keep a patient overnight, especially when they are housed in intensive care units staffed with the most skilled nurses and doctors.
Safety-net health-care providers that treat a large number of poor and uninsured often struggle to keep length of stay relatively low. Even so, other hospitals in Grady's class, including Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, maintain a length of stay closer to five days.
Grady's challenges stem from the hospital serving a large number of homeless people that need long-term care, along with day-to-day operational issues including aging medical equipment and poor communication and coordination among the hospital staff, according to Grady's former consulting firm, Alvarez & Marsal Holdings LLC.
Medical milestone
Piedmont Hospital's Dr. Mark Johnson recently carried out the 100th liver transplant at the Atlanta hospital -- a milestone for a program that is just now in its second full year.
The 458-bed hospital first launched its liver transplant program in April 2005, becoming one of only two hospitals in the state to offer the program. The other is housed at Emory University School of Medicine. In Georgia, 154 liver transplants were performed last year, while another 270 state residents are awaiting new livers.
Piedmont Hospital's transplant program, which also includes kidney and pancreas transplants, is led by Medical Director Dr. John D. Whelchel.
Reaching higher
Atlanta's Shepherd Center continues moving up in the rankings of the country's top rehabilitation hospitals.
Shepherd rose to No. 11 among 26 U.S. rehabilitation hospitals in the recent U.S. News & World Report rankings. Shepherd Center is a catastrophic-care hospital for people with devastating injuries and illnesses. It is pursuing the latest innovations in its field, including the opportunity to become a hub of cutting-edge research into spinal cord regeneration, particularly through the use of stem cells.
Douglas Sams: (404) 249-1055; dsams@bizjournals.com.
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