After breaking ground last May, construction on Hackensack Meridian Health‘s new Ambulatory Care Center in Clifton is on track.

Prism Capital Partners LLC provided an update on the development Jan. 11, announcing an anticipated November delivery for the 80,000-square-foot state-of-art facility at ON3.

According to the real estate owner, operator and developer behind the 116-acre campus, the new addition will serve as the gateway to the mixed-used development from its location at the corner of Metro Boulevard and Route 3.

In a statement, Prism Principal Partner Eugene Diaz pointed to parallels between HMH and ON3.

“Hackensack Meridian Health was our very first tenant at ON3, and its presence has grown here continually with new and expanding operations,” he said. “We are proud to partner with this health care leader on their mission to deliver the highest-quality services to the community.”

Prism Construction Management is developing the four-story ambulatory center with a design from Gensler. In addition to multi-specialty practice areas, it could include an ambulatory surgical center, Prism said. The building will feature a glass curtain wall façade, double height entry and spaces filled with daylight. An attached parking structure is also planned.

ON3 is also home to HMH’s School of Medicine as well as its Center for Discovery and Innovation.

Speaking with NJBIZ last February, HMH Chief Executive Officer Robert Garrett touched on the evolving landscape of where patients receive care.

“One in four Americans don’t have a primary care doctor. So, we need to be out there and we need to be putting our physicians’ offices in locations where there are access issues. We’re also adding a significant number of ambulatory care sites,” Garrett said. “As more and more care continues to gravitate outside the hospital, you’ll see more of these ambulatory care settings.”

The pandemic accelerated the move to ambulatory care, which shifts the point of service away from a main hospital campus. According to a 2020 report from McKinsey & Co., in addition to added convenience for patients and ease of access, ambulatory centers also help cut costs significantly for patients and payers “as their entire operating chassis is often configured at a lower cost base across staffing, space, and some types of supplies, while margins for health care providers can often be the same or higher.”

Anticipating approximately 3.4 million new jobs in the health care and social assistance sector through 2023, McKinsey reported that more than half would be in ambulatory care services.

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