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Make it one more world-class medical office for both Montefiore Medical Center and the Hutchinson Metro Center.

On Monday, June 27, Montefiore officially opened its brand-new Center for Orthopedic Specialties at the Hutchinson Metro Center.

The 29,000 square-foot facility is nearly three times the size of its previous operation and will employ 32 doctors. It is the biggest facility of its kind in the Bronx and Westchester.

The biggest advantage to the new location is that with more space and more offices, doctors can see more patients, who don’t have to spend as much time in a waiting room.

“The demands for services are tremendous,” said Dr. Neil Cobelli, chair of orthopedic surgery at Montefiore. “We were having trouble meeting the needs. The physicians were available, but there wasn’t enough space.”

One of the few drawbacks to the new location is that patients who lived near the old center, which was located on Eastchester Road, will have a slightly harder time getting to their treatment.

“It’s been tough on the people from the neighborhood who used to walk,” Cobelli said. “But there is plenty of parking here, and a shuttle bus.”

The center had been seeing patients for approximately a month before its official opening. To orthopedic surgeon Sam Moghtaderi, the biggest advantage of the new location is state-of-the-art technology.

“It’s not just that everything is new, but we now have all the most cutting-edge technology here,” Moghtaderi said.

The office’s x-ray system is also now fully integrated with the rest of the Montefiore system’s, so doctors can pull up x-ray images that were taken in any Montefiore building. That’s crucial for a field of medicine that focuses on bones and the skeletal system.

Fellow orthopedic surgeon and shoulder specialist Konrad Gruson said feedback from patients has been positive.

“I think the flow, from when patients check in to when they check out, is better here,” Gruson said. “I think they appreciate not waiting around.”

Cobelli first approached Montefiore President Dr. Steven Safyer about a new facility three years ago, mainly because patient demand was too great for the previous facility. The demand is mainly a result of an aging population that has stayed active.

“Over a million joint replacements will be done in the United States this year,” Cobelli said. “As the population ages but stays active, we can help them.”

©2011 Community Newspaper Group