One-stop shop surgery center to open near campus

Men and women in business clothes flocked to an open plot on the corner of Cumberland Avenue and US 231 to cast their vision upon it with a shovel full of dirt.

Franciscan OrthoIndy, a division of Franciscan Health, broke ground Wednesday to expand into West Lafayette with a new full-service surgery center that CEO John Ryan said will take care of a wide range of residents’ orthopedic needs.

That means it will be a one-stop shop for issues from foot to hip and hand to shoulder. If someone breaks a bone or tears an ACL, they can go about 7 minutes north of Ross Ade Stadium to the center for urgent care, and surgery and subsequent rehab if necessary.

“It isn’t lost on us that we’re on the corner of Purdue’s campus, which is a good partner of ours,” Ryan said. “We see a lot of Purdue employees for their orthopedic needs.”

The location, with plenty of green space and right next to the under-construction Cason Family Park, checks boxes for both Franciscan and West Lafayette.

“We’ve done a lot of collaboration with Franciscan,” West Lafayette Mayor Erin Easter said. “With the surgery center right next to the park, there are a lot of amenities to be shared between the two. We want to be good neighbors.”

Easter said the area, with its expanse of open land, presents an opportunity for restaurants, research facilities and housing to serve area businesses.

The area’s large high school population will benefit too, as injured athletes, who in the past would have only found care an hour away, are now minutes from it.

Franciscan Health Western Indiana Vice President Jim Siemers said Purdue athletes, on the other hand, won’t see the same benefit – at least not yet.

He said Purdue sports has a contract with Franciscan, but currently sends athletes to Carmel for surgical procedures. Whether that changes is up to Purdue’s athletic department.

“What I want to do is get established serving the community here at large,” Siemers said.

The partnership between Franciscan and Greater Lafayette, which already operates a number of facilities in the area, will allow OrthoIndy to pool area surgeons with surgeons coming from Indianapolis. The result is a wider scope of expertise, Ryan said, which can still be supplemented by surgeons in Indianapolis if a specialized need can’t immediately be met at the local center.

“This will be the first facility that we’ve constructed outside of the Greater Indianapolis area,” Ryan said. “So it’s an exciting day, not just for this partnership, but for OrthoIndy.”

Editor's Note: A previous version of this incorrectly identified the address of the surgery center. It has been updated.