Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center recently opened a new imaging center in Moorpark aimed at filling a service gap as the area’s population grows, hospital officials said. The Thousand Oaks-based hospital opened the center, located at 865 Patriot Drive, Suite 100, early last month in a medical plaza where it holds the master lease, said Gregory Monette, the hospital’s vice president of business development. The center joins an independently-run urgent care center and physician offices, which opened earlier this year. The hospital also plans to introduce additional medical services at the facility in the future, Monette said. The center’s services include general diagnostic imaging, general radiology, ultrasound services and bone density exams, said David Clark, Los Robles Hospital’s administrative director of diagnostic imaging. Mammography services might also be added by the end of the year. The center is expected to serve about 3,000 visits a year, with those largely coming from physician offices in the area, he said. Clark said there was a strong need for such an imaging center in the community, since Moorpark residents previously had to travel to Thousand Oaks or Simi Valley for the closest centers. “The biggest advantage is the high quality of care that’s provided within the neighborhood and not having to travel the distance” for non-emergency situations, Clark said. Monette said the hospital did research to determine where it should expand medical services. “(Moorpark’s) population is growing pretty rapidly,” he said. “By 2013, they estimated it will grow another 9 percent.” The hospital’s research also found that about 39 percent of Moorpark residents went to Los Robles Hospital for inpatient services in 2008, he said. The urgent care center, which is run by Moorpark Comprehensive Medical Group, and the physician offices, which are run by Dr. Kodama and Associates, already have benefitted from the new imaging center, said Al Velasco, office manager and building partner for the medical groups. Both groups opened their operations in late March, after spending years working with Los Robles Hospital to find the right location for the medical plaza, he said. “We were actually chomping at the bit to use them (the imaging center),” Velasco said. “We had quite a few patients that needed scans. Now that they’re open, we’re using them quite a bit.” He estimated that the medical groups have been referring about 20 to 30 patients a week to the center. Velasco said the medical groups, which became two entities after one physician started a separate practice, also are benefitting from having space double the size of their former Moorpark location. There are plans to add one or two more physicians to the urgent care center, he said. Patients also will be able to benefit from a pharmacy that’s slated to move in this year, he said. “The turnaround for the prescription is going to be almost instant,” Velasco said. “Patients really haven’t seen the full potential of the center yet until all the different businesses open up.” Monette said plans for other future additions are still in the works. “There will be more doctor’s offices, and there (will be) a physical therapy clinic as well,” Monette said. There are also plans for the hospital to provide outpatient laboratory services in the building, he said.
Los Robles Hospital Opens Imaging Center at Medical Plaza
