Medical practice manager expands in New Rochelle

Westchester County Business Journal, Jul 26, 2004 by Philippidis, Alex

A manager of anesthesia services for office-based medical practices and ambulatory surgery centers will move, within New Rochelle next month, nearly tripling its headquarters office space as it gears up for additional growth.

Somnia Inc. will relocate in August into the 18,000-square-foot second floor at 10 Commerce Drive, from its current space of nearly 7,000 square feet at 145 Huguenot Drive. The relocation follows Somnia's expansion last month into Philadelphia, and comes as the company is planning to grow further outside the New York metropolitan area.

"We definitely need morespace as a result of our expansion, and our anticipated continued expansion, both within the region and nationally," said Dr. Robert C. Goldstein executive vice president of Somnia. "We have our eyes on coming into Chicago next quarter. We're on track with opening new locations once a quarter."

As a result, Somnia expects its work force to grow since the company adds four employees each time it opens a new site, he said.

Somnia has grown over the past three years to 40 anesthesiologists, a part-time nurse anesthetist and 42 support staffers - compared with eight anesthesiologists and seven support staffers three years ago.

Somnia anticipates it will reach annual revenues of $16.8 million by later this year or early 2005, Goldstein said.

Goldstein co-founded the company as Resource Anesthesiology Associates P.C. (RAA) in 1996 with Dr. Marc E. Koch, now Somnia's president and chief executive officer. Both are board-certified anesthesiologists trained at Yale University School of Medicine. The company began at Yale and later moved to Queens, before relocating to New Rochelle in 1999.

Goldstein and Koch formed Somnia last year by separating RAA's administrative functions from its role as provider of anesthesia services to office and ambulatory practices. Administrative services include staffing, quality assurance, peer review, billing and logistics. Goldstein said the company ensures top care by following the standards of the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Heath Care.

Somnia also manages Metro Pain Management, an interventional pain management practice, and Addiction Recovery Institute, a discreet addiction medicine practice specializing in opiate detoxification.

Scarsdale-based Goldschmidt and Associates represented Somnia and the building owner in the lease transaction. Somnia began its office search after concluding it needed larger quarters near its current space and within walking distance of the New Rochelle Multimodal Transportation Center.