The nation's first ASC is moving to a bigger facility, Banner Health announced Feb. 25.
Five things to know:
1. Phoenix-based Banner Surgery Center-University — which opened 50 years ago under the name Surgicenter — is moving to a facility with eight operating rooms and multispecialty equipment.
2. At the new location, Banner Surgery Center-University will offer orthopedics, podiatry, ENT surgery, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, general surgery, gynecological surgery and pain management.
3. Banner Surgery Center-University's new facility was developed by Phoenix-based Atlas Healthcare Partners, which formed a joint venture with Phoenix-based Banner Health in September 2018. Atlas will also manage the surgery center.
4. The Banner-Atlas joint venture now manages 10 surgery centers with plans to add five in 2020.
5. Wallace Reed, MD, and John Ford, MD, opened Surgicenter on Feb. 12, 1970. More than 400 visitors toured the facility during its first year of operation to learn how they could start their own ASCs.
"We're excited to be writing another chapter in the surgery center's rich history," said Joan Thiel, vice president of ambulatory services for Banner Health. "The center was created to make healthcare more accessible for patients and we will continue that legacy with this new facility."