ASHLAND, Ohio– OhioHealth celebrated the upcoming opening of OhioHealth Ashland Health Center, slated for January 27 at 8 a.m., with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday. The $14-million health center, located at 1720 OhioHealth Way near the corner of State Route 250 and George Road, will expand OhioHealth’s current services and provide a more convenient choice for OhioHealth patients who live, work and shop in and near Ashland.
OhioHealth broke ground on the two-story, 22,000-sq.-ft. health center in November 2019. The facility includes emergency services, imaging and lab services on the first floor, and provider practices and rehabilitation services on the second floor. The project will add 50 new jobs to Ashland.
“We are excited to show our continued commitment to the Ashland community by opening the OhioHealth Ashland Health Center,” said Vinson Yates, president of OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital and OhioHealth Shelby Hospital. “Several residents and those working in the community already choose OhioHealth for ournationally recognized heart and vascular and orthopedics teams, who have served the community of Ashland for more than 30 years. By adding emergency services and expanding our providers in Ashland, we will provide convenience and choice for the community to stay closer to home when needs arise.”
FIRST FLOOR
Similar to the freestanding emergency department in Ontario near Meijer, OhioHealth Emergency Care – Ashland will have eight treatment rooms, a resuscitation room and imaging capabilities for emergency patients. The department will be staffed 24/7 by emergency physicians and a clinical team experienced in treating patients with severe or life-threatening conditions, such as severe bleeding, shortness of breath or chest pain.
“In the last few years, we saw an increase of Ashland County residents choosing emergency services at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital,” said Yates. “This new location will improve convenience for these patients, so they can get to an OhioHealth emergency care facility when minutes matter the most. Our mission is to improve the health of those we serve, and our philosophy is to keep care local as often as possible. We’re proud to be the first to bring this concept to Ashland County.”
OhioHealth Ashland Health Center will be OhioHealth’s tenth freestanding emergency department, with Westerville Medical Campus having the first in 2012. While freestanding emergency departments are capable of handling most any medical emergency, a patient visiting a traditional emergency department with a minor emergency may experience a delay in receiving treatment while the more severe cases are tended to. In a freestanding emergency department, wait times to see a physician are significantly less, allowing for faster treatment at the same high level of quality.
Freestanding emergency departments are not the same as urgent cares. Freestanding emergency departments provide emergency care, which is for severe or life-threatening conditions like severe bleeding, shortness of breath or chest pain. Urgent care is for non-life-threatening injuries or illnesses like minor burns, the flu or allergic reactions.
In the coming months, Ashland Health Center will have a dedicated helipad. A very small percentage of patients will need to be transferred by helicopter. In the event that a patient needs continued emergent care, the role of the emergency team will be to stabilize the patient and secure the area while a medical helicopter lands and takes off. OhioHealth has worked closely with MedFlight to determine best scenarios for landing locations while the helipad is under construction.
In addition to emergency services on the first floor, OhioHealth will provide outpatient lab and imaging services. Patients with a provider order for X-ray imaging or labs will be able to walk-in for services, while patients with a provider order for CT imaging will need to make an appointment. Imaging is located within the emergency department, and the lab has a separate, dedicated space on the first floor.
SECOND FLOOR
Last fall primary care physicians Rabia Toor, MD, and Dalia Youssef, MD, joined Christina Spring, NP, at the OhioHealth Physician Group Primary Care practice on Amberwood Parkway. The practice helps with a patient’s routine health with prevention and wellness services, sports physicals, and sick care. The primary care practice will relocate from the Amberwood Parkway medical office building to the second floor of the new health center. Also relocating from Amberwood Parkway will be Zachary Watson, CNP, of OhioHealth Physician Group Endocrinology, who meets withpatients with diabetes and endocrine system or metabolic disorders for individualized treatment plans, disease management and education on lifestyle changes. Other specialists will be joining Ashland Health Center in the coming months.
OhioHealth Rehabilitation Services, also with a location on Amberwood Parkway, has moved to the Ashland Health Center. Therapies is an important part of a patient’s recovery and continued health.
COMMUNITY
Other well-established specialty practices, such as OhioHealth Physician Group Orthopedic and Sports Medicine and OhioHealth Physician Group Heart and Vascular, in Ashland, will remain at their current location in the Amberwood Parkway medical office building. Several of these providers have directly served the Ashland community for more than 30 years. The additional space at the Amberwood medical office building will allow for future growth.
OhioHealth prides itself on its relationships in the Ashland community. OhioHealth works closely with the Ashland University Dwight Schar School of Nursing and Health Sciences to provide opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in a hospital setting. Clinical site shortages and faculty shortages are national issues of concern in the education of future professional nurses. This partnership as well as the tuition opportunities for OhioHealth associates help to retain and attract skilled and professional jobs in the area.
As the official healthcare provider of the Ashland University Athletics, OhioHealth provides athletic training services to improve safety and performance of Ashland student athletes. As the official healthcare partner, OhioHealth provides medical counsel and coverage to the university’s 18 intercollegiate sports.
OhioHealth proudly supports Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce, Ashland Balloonfest, Ashland Eagler, Grow Ashland, Leadership Ashland and Rotary Club of Ashland.
The Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce recognized OhioHealth as the Health and Medical Services Organization of the Year at the 2020 Annual Members Awards Banquet.
ABOUT OHIOHEALTH
OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit, charitable, healthcare outreach of the United Methodist Church.
Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth has been recognized as one of the top five large health systems in America by Truven Health Analytics, an honor it has received six times. It is also recognized by FORTUNE as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” and has been for 13 years in a row, 2007-2019.
Serving its communities since 1891, it is a family of 35,000 associates, physicians and volunteers, and a network of 12 hospitals, 200+ ambulatory sites, hospice, home-health, medical equipment and other health services spanning a 47-county area.
OhioHealth hospitals include OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital, OhioHealth Hardin Memorial Hospital, OhioHealth Marion General Hospital, OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital, OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital, OhioHealth Shelby Hospital, OhioHealth Grove City Methodist Hospital and OhioHealth Berger Hospital. For more information, please visit our website at www.ohiohealth.com.