Page 50 - Innovation Delaware 2019

FROM LEFT: WILMINVEST FOUNDERS
BRYCE FENDER, JOEL AMIN AND DEMETRIUS THORN
unstable housing situations. “We’re able to buy distressed real estate, boarded-up real estate, fix it up, and then lease it out to community organizations that are working with this population that needs more stable housing,” Fender says.
The pilot project for the firm is three houses Wilminvest purchased in late 2018; two are complete, while renova- tions are underway on the third.
BEEBE HEALTHCARE
CHANGING THE WORLD BY:
MAKING CUTTING-EDGE SURGERY TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE TO RURAL POPULATIONS
Nearly a quarter of rural hospitals in the U.S. are at risk of closing, accord- ing to a 2018 report by consulting firm Navigant. In rural Delaware, the oppo- site is happening: Beebe Healthcare, a presence in Lewes since 1916, is poised for a major expansion that will put robotic surgery, cancer care and much more within an easy drive of even the most remote areas of Sussex County.
“We’re a very large and rural county, so a major strategy has been to take
as much care as is medically appropri- ate off the [original Beebe] campus in
48 DelawareBusinessTimes.com
freestanding emergency department in Georgetown.)
“The specialty surgical hospital is innovative in many regards because it is taking a portion of folks who would come to acute care hospitals and separating them out,” says Sydnor. “The facility will take care of scheduled surgery patients. By not co-mingling them with more acutely ill or trauma patients, we can really create a more focused experience for them” so that, for example, scheduled patients don’t take a back-seat on imaging work to those with more acute needs.
The new hospital, which is breaking ground this spring and should be com- plete within two-and-a-half years, will also house a center for robotic surgery. This will enable Beebe to expand its existing offerings of this and other min- imally invasive techniques, says Sydnor.
“Our growth in the number of cases is exponential since the start of our
Lewes and make it more convenient for patients living in other parts of Sussex County,” says Alex Sydnor,
vice president and chief external affairs officer at Beebe.
One of the major components in Beebe’s expansion is a new specialty surgical hospital off Del. Route 24, near Rehoboth Beach. (Others include a new cancer center in Millville and a
[robotic surgery] program last year,” says Kurt Wehberg, M.D., co-chief of cardiothoracic surgery, chief of robotics and vice president of clinical innovation at Beebe. “This growth will continue
as area patients and physicians learn
of our robotically assisted expert surgeons.” The new specialty surgical hospital, he adds, “will be especially suited for these types of cases.”
RENDERING OF BEEBE HEALTHCARE’S PLANNED SPECIALTY SURGICAL HOSPITAL