There’s a major new tenant — and a familiar one — for Wesley Medical Plaza

UPDATED — Wichita Surgical Specialists is expanding and remodeling in a big way.

“It’s just going to update our facilities and give us more room to practice and not be on top of each other,” said vascular surgeon Alex Ammar, who is president and CEO.

“If the staff is more comfortable, they can be more efficient in their work.”

Ammar’s uncles, George and Jim Farha, founded the practice in 1963. Currently, there are 30 surgeons across a range of specialties and 100 staff members in four offices. Part of the expansion actually will eliminate one of those offices — the Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph branch, although Wichita Surgical Specialists physicians will still see patients at the hospital.

“The St. Joe hospital is becoming less of a surgical facility,” Ammar said. He said it’s “not as . . . strategic for us as it used to be.

“We felt like expanding on the Wesley campus was better for us.”

That’s where the major expansion is happening. The practice will move from 2,500 square feet on the third floor of Wesley Medical Plaza, which formerly was known as the Health Strategies building, to 20,000 square feet on the second floor.

The move will allow the practice to add surgeons and exam rooms. The new space will be ready in June.

That space is about the same size as the largest Wichita Surgical Specialists office at Ascension Via Christi St. Francis in the Heritage Plaza building. The practice has been there almost 40 years. As the group was planning its renovation, that’s what inspired the other changes as well, including a renovation of its office at the Kansas Heart Office Plaza.

That 5,500-square-foot office, which includes the group’s Vein Care Specialists practice, is newer and won’t require as extensive a renovation as the St. Francis office.

The practice’s Breast Care Specialists office, which is on a separate floor of Heritage Plaza, will be moving to Wesley Medical Plaza when that renovation is complete. The rest of the Wichita Surgical Specialists office at Heritage Plaza will remain at the building, and the practice will be renovated in phases.

“It’ll be a significant renovation,” Ammar said.

He said it’s important because “this group means a lot to the community.”

Ammar said that’s in part because of the breadth of surgical procedures it performs but also because it is an integral part of the KU School of Medicine-Wichita and its residency program.

Historically, Ammar said it’s been difficult to recruit physicians to Wichita. Often once they get here, though, he said, “They like it, and they typically stay, particularly those who train here.”

Though each of the practice’s offices are affected by the renovations, Ammar said nothing else will change.

“It’s not going to change what we do. We’re going to practice and our patients are going to be treated the same way they always have.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 1:40 PM.