MIDDLETOWN — ChristianaCare is continuing to expand its health care services, moving forward on plans to build a new health center on land bought long ago next door to its existing freestanding emergency facility in Middletown.
Delaware’s largest health care system purchased 108 acres in 2009 with big plans in mind for the ChristianaCare Health Center, Middletown Campus. In 2013, ChristianaCare opened its emergency department, marking the first such facility in the growing community. Last year alone, the department saw more than 32,000 patients which is over double the amount of patients leaders expected to see at the facility.
The emergency department was just the first phase of ChristianaCare’s up and coming healthcare campus in southern New Castle County and initially offered medical access to residents where they would otherwise have to travel to Dover, Newark or Wilmington for emergency services.
ChristianaCare Chief Strategy and Legal Officer Jennifer Schwartz hopes the second phase of the project, the new 87,000 square foot multidisciplinary outpatient health center, will open up access to patients who may need even more health care options. The new facility will be more than twice the size of the 36,500-square-foot existing emergency department.
Once the new health center is open, it will include primary care, women’s health, behavioral health, oncology, neurology, cardiovascular care, other specialties, imaging and laboratory services, all of which were identified as needed in the local area through market research. ChristianaCare also proposed an ambulatory surgery center as the third phase of the expansion project.
“The expanded health services will provide care across the continuum, including prevention, wellness services, assessment, treatment and follow-up care,” she told the Delaware Business Times in a prepared statement. “By helping people to meet their health needs, including preventative care and better management of their chronic conditions, we can often prevent the need for emergency or ‘rescue’ care.”
In addition to the services to be provided at the new campus, 21 new subspecialities will be added, along with 15 new providers and 57 new caregivers, according to the presentation given by ChristianaCare during the Health Resources Board meeting on Sept. 26. Patients will also be able to receive more than one service per visit in the new center.
With local growth as one of the driving factors leading ChristianaCare’s expansion efforts, leaders cited an 8% population growth by 2029 during the board meeting, as well as a whopping 550% growth for the area from 1990 to 2023 which was nearly double the growth rate seen across the state and included an increasingly diverse population.
“Today, many Middletown residents need to travel outside their community to meet their health care needs. Our vision is to create a dynamic campus that offers an extended range of health services in Middletown while also acting as a central hub for health and wellness activities within the community,” Schwartz told DBT. “The new ChristianaCare Health Center at Middletown will improve the quality of life for people in Middletown by offering exceptional care close to home. This plan will establish a multispecialty site of care in Middletown to enable existing services to grow and meet the increasing community demand while also introducing new needed services to Middletown.”
To make the plan work, ChristianaCare made a capital investment of $92.8 million which includes the design, construction, equipment and informational technology needed to work on the second phase. The facility will feature innovative designs such as wide windows, open space, walking paths and other elements with work on the new expansion expected to be complete in the spring of 2027.
“Middletown, Delaware, is among the fastest-growing communities in the region, and with that growth comes increased needs for health care,” ChristianaCare President and CEO Janice Nevin said in a press release. “We are incredibly excited to bring this new level of service to the Middletown community, with the high-quality care and exceptional experience that are the hallmarks of ChristianaCare.”
