Healthcare providers have major expansion projects on the horizon

From historic “Pill Hill” to Cincinnati’s fastest-growing suburbs, local healthcare systems are continuing to build new hospitals and related medical facilities at a blistering pace. While most of these projects have been in the works for some time, their completion within the next few years is likely to help the region deal with the “new normal” of the ongoing presence of the coronavirus.

Here are some of the major healthcare construction projects taking place locally:
 

• The University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Corryville is spending $221 million to double the size of its emergency department. The expansion will consist of two new four-story buildings, one housing the ER and its affiliated operations, and the other eight operating rooms. Both are slated to be patient-ready in early 2024.

 

• Roughly 20 miles northeast of the city’s historic hospital cluster, Mercy Health is working on new $200 million, 172,000 square-foot facility. To be known as The Mercy Health Kings Mills Hospital, the 60-bed hospital and medical office complex is being built on a 30-acre site at Kings Mills Road and Kings Island Drive. It’s slated to open in fall 2023.

 

• TriHealth is investing $140 million in significant additions and renovations at its flagship Good Samaritan Hospital over the next five years. The hospital’s master facility plan calls for the creation of a cutting-edge surgery facility, construction of a new five-story building with 168,000 square feet of space, and the demolition of the current team member parking garage. (The neighboring Hebrew Union Dormitory is also being demolished to become the site of the new team member parking garage.)

In addition, the system is undertaking a major expansion of its heart hospital at its Bethesda North campus in Kenwood as well as building a new, $30 million ambulatory campus in Finneytown. The latter operation will offer primary, specialty, and diagnostic services, including cardiology, gastroenterology, general surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, orthopedics, and obstetrics. A timetable for its opening was not immediately available.
 

• Coming on the heels of the November opening of a new emergency department/urgent care facility that’s triple the size of the previous one, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital announced that a three-office physician practice in Northern Kentucky will join it on Feb. 1. Bringing River Hills Pediatrics – with offices in Alexandria, Florence and Southgate – reflects a continuing effort by the medical center to expand and improve primary care for children across the region, hospital officials say.

Also expanding its physician-office offerings is The Christ Hospital Health Network, which will open a two-doctor, obstetrics and gynecology practice in Springboro. The 2,580 square-foot office will include exam rooms, a procedure room, a medical lab and offices, and is set to debut this month.