As part of their new partnership with OhioHealth, MedCentral is expanding in Mansfield with a new, 123,000 square foot medical office building being constructed just a few feet away from the existing hospital.
The expansion will include a new 34,000 square foot surgery department with 10 new surgery suites and two new open-heart surgery suites, expanded heart and vascular services, expanded orthopedics services, and a community wellness and education center. In addition, once the new building is finished plans are in place to renovate 26,000 square feet of existing hospital space.
According to Brad Peffley, Vice President of Clinical Services at OhioHealth MedCentral, the expansion project was part of the affiliation agreement from the very beginning, when MedCentral first began talks of partnering with OhioHealth.
“It was part of the stipulation we had with everyone we were talking to, we made them aware that we had been working on this plan for a couple years prior to when we started the affiliation talks,” said Peffley. “We knew we had to replace surgery, and we needed to do this from a strategic long-term perspective.”
The construction itself comes at a price tag of around $54 million according to Peffley, with between $20 and $30 million additional costs for equipment and furnishing. With an aggressive 18-month construction schedule, Peffley said the estimated completion date for the building expansion is the fall of 2015. The project involves almost 160,000 square feet of new construction with almost 27,000 square feet of renovation; Peffley said the total project comes to approximately 180,000 square feet.
Starting from the bottom, beneath ground level, the hospital expansion will include a brand-new surgery wing with 10 universal operating suites that have the flexibility to perform any kind of surgery.
“We have a couple specialty suites now that are larger, and if you have to do more of those kinds of cases you’re restricted to those larger rooms,” explained Peffley. “This will allow us to do anything in any of those rooms, so we’ve got the flexibility where if a case comes up, we don’t have to wait on another one finishing because that’s the room we need.”
Once the new surgery suites are finished, the existing surgery wing will be renovated to include locker rooms, conference rooms, a recovery wing, pre- and post-op areas, outpatient surgeries and recovery bays, to name a few.
On the ground floor, the second level of the new building will start the medical offices of the building with the orthopedic institute, which will include exam rooms, x-ray rooms, and space to add more orthopedic specialists down the road.
The third and fourth levels of the new building are dedicated to MedCentral’s heart and vascular institute. According to Peffley, the third level of the building will house the cardiologists, electrophysiologists, cardiology specialists, and the cardiac and thoracic surgeons.
“This will be where they see the vast majority of patients,” said Peffley. “All of those people are very much procedural-based, and right next door in the hospital is where the labs are. They will have outpatient office-based testing on this floor, but some procedures you can’t do in an office, you have to do in the hospital. Being able to just walk across the connector into the hospital from their office makes it a lot more efficient and convenient for them.”
The focus of the fourth level will be geared towards prevention, wellness and education as part of OhioHealth’s emphasis not only on treatment, but prevention.
“Especially related to heart and vascular problems, because heart disease is the number one killer and one of the biggest areas of cost for healthcare,” specified Peffley. “As we move forward with where healthcare is going, we need to not only take care of people when they’re sick or have a problem, but we want to try to keep them healthy.”
The fifth level of the building will be “shelled,” meaning it will be built only as the outside shell of the building and some lighting, and leaving it at that. Peffley said the space will be available to add additional physician specialty office space in the future.
“We have some other physician specialists, who have indicated they might be interested in some of that space, plus we’re recruiting for neurosurgery and that would be a place where you would want to have those specialists there as well,” he said.
With the orthopedic and heart and vascular institutes moving to the new building, travel time will be cut down between respective satellite offices. Currently the orthopedic institute is located on Trimble Road, the MidOhio Heart building is on Park Avenue West, and various heart and vascular surgeons have offices located on Balgreen Drive.
“It’s real nice for specialists and especially surgical specialists because they can see the patients, they’re close to surgery, they don’t have to get in their car and come over to operate for an emergency or to see a patient that needs a consult,” said Peffley. “They can be in the hospital and come back and forth. It makes it a lot easier for them because they do so much of their work in the hospital.”
Peffley noted the hospital has faced some challenges with parking now that construction has started in earnest. From March 24 through April 14, Ohio Street will be closed from Vennum Avenue to the loading dock, which will remain open. Trucks will pull onto Lind Avenue and back up into the loading dock. This will temporarily close the physicians parking area off Ohio Street between March 24 and April 14. After April 14, Ohio Street will function as a one-way street due to construction barriers. A courtesy shuttle is available for patients and visitors.
The old handicapped parking area and up to five rows of the public patient visitor parking will no longer be available. Lot A for associate parking will house the construction trailers and will take 32 spaces out of that lot. Hospital security officers have analyzed the parking situation and feel confident there is adequate parking. Peffley added the hospital has had two different parking studies done in order to ensure sufficient parking once the project is finished.
“We don’t want to open this up and not have adequate parking for the physicians, for the patients, for staff and everybody else,” he said.
With up-to-date surgery suites and equipment to attract surgeons and modern office spaces to retain physicians, Peffley said he is excited for the completion of the project.
“Where healthcare is going, we’re going from volume to value,” he said. “If we’re taking care of you, we’re going to be responsible for taking care of you no matter what the problems are. This will allow us to take care of patients more efficiently and help us provide hopefully as cost-effective care as possible and as high quality as possible.”
“Some procedures you can’t do in an office, you have to do in the hospital. Being able to just walk across the connector into the hospital from their office makes it a lot more efficient and convenient for them,” said Brad Peffley, Vice President of Clinical Services.
