Martin's Point Opens New Facility at Pease International Tradeport

Open House Set for Week of February 12-16

PORTSMOUTH, New Hampshire - Martin's Point Health Care is opening a new 19,000-square-foot health care facility at the Pease International Tradeport in Portsmouth next week. The modern, patient-focused facility will open January 15 at 161 Corporate Drive. A week-long open house for patients and members of the public is scheduled for February 12 - 16 with blood pressure and bone density screenings, health lectures, a Red Cross blood drive, refreshments, and tours of the new facility.

The state-of-the-art center features four physicians and three physician assistants, all of whom are accepting new patients and were formerly located at the previous Martin's Point facility in Newington, which will close at noon Friday, Jan. 12 to move into the tradeport. The phone number, (603) 431-5154 or 1-800-222-5154, will remain the same.

The practices of physicians Cowan Stark, M.D., Steven Lutz, M.D., Mark Ballentyne, M.D., and Mark Henschke, D.O., and physician assistants Marcy Starling, PA-C, Stephen Theriault, PA-C, and Judith Santangelo, PA-C, will now be located at the new facility.

Designed by a team of architects at PDT in Portland with input from the Martin's Point staff, the new facility has an open lobby area to increase patient flow and communication, as well as 20 exam rooms plus three minor medical procedures rooms, an on site lab, x-ray and mammography services, and a full service pharmacy. The new center will also be open Saturdays and offer expanded hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. In addition, health education classes will be offered on topics ranging from diabetes to blood pressure management.

Martin's Point Health Care serves 47,000 patients in Maine and New Hampshire, including retired military and dependents of active military personnel.

The Pease International Tradeport is part of the Pease Development Authority, an agency of the State of New Hampshire created to redevelop the former Pease Air Force Base. The tradeport has grown over the past seven years and now is home to more than 150 businesses and organizations. In addition, the new Domestic and International Air Passenger Terminal, which includes a full custom facility for international flights, has been completed.

Ledgewood, Inc. of Portland, served as the general contractor and construction manager for the health care facility, which was designed by PDT Architects of Portland. PDT provides a full range of architectural and engineering planning and design services. Both PDT and Ledgewood worked with the staff at Martin's Point to gather and analyze information about the medical practice, then diagrammed patient flow, interviewed staff and providers, and integrated practice information with technology needs and a budget. The result? "This is a state of the art facility patients can feel good about coming to," said Dr. David Howes, president and chief operating officer of Martin's Point Health Care, and a physician for more than 25 years. "We're very excited about our continued growth in New Hampshire and feel this facility will help us serve more patients in the Seacoast region in the future."

Martin's Point Health Care, established in 1981, is a non-profit health care provider with additional facilities in Portland, Brunswick and Windham, Maine.

Unique to Martin's Point and an integral part of the New Hampshire facility will be the online communication program called Patients Personal Points. Introduced in Newington earlier this year, the free service allows Martin=s Point patients to use their computers to communicate by a secure server with their doctors to schedule appointments, ask advice and obtain prescription refills. Patients Personal Points recently won a national technology award from the Healthcare Innovations in Technology Systems (HITS) "Partnership in Technology" national awards program.

With a staff of 290 health care professionals, Martin's Point serves patients in the areas of family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, radiology, surgery, cardiology, mammography and other fields. Martin's Point Health Care holds the contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to provide health care services for retired military personnel and the dependents of active duty personnel. Martin's Point accepts all major health plans and insurance, including but not limited to HealthSource, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Harvard Community Health Plan, Aetna, Maine Partners, Cigna, Anthem, Champus and Tricare plans.

For additional information about the open house in February, persons may call site managers Laura Hartmann or D"TOPe Newbury at 1-800-222-5154.

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