$16 million Health Center Being Built by Akron Children's Hospital
Lydia Coutré, Health care/Nonprofit reporter for Crain's Cleveland Business reports on Akron Children's Hospital quest to build a $16 million health center on Aultman campus.
"Our new North Canton Health Center will have all of our most essential services in one address, with easy wayfinding and free parking."
Akron Children's Hospital is bringing several of its services to a new three-story, 38,000-square-foot building in North Canton on Aultman Hospital property, according to a news release.
Ground will soon be broken on the $16 million Akron Children's North Canton Health Center, which will bring the children's hospital's pediatric primary care, about a dozen of its most in-demand pediatric specialty care practices and rehabilitation services to North Canton. It will consolidate services currently in three other Stark County locations into one space.
The health center is the first of several such centers planned throughout the region, according to a release. The center, part of a long-term lease with Aultman, is slated to open late in 2018.
"Our new North Canton Health Center will have all of our most essential services in one address, with easy wayfinding and free parking," Grace Wakulchik, president of Akron Children's, said in a prepared statement. "We know parents come to appointments with strollers, siblings, diaper bags and perhaps a child who is ill and anxious. Family-centered care has always been central to our mission and we are always working to enhance the patient experience."
The project is the most recent example of collaboration between Akron Children's and Aultman Hospital, according to the release.
The building's first floor will serve as the North Canton office of Akron Children's Hospital Pediatrics, a medical home for babies, children and teens. Staffed by board-certified pediatricians, nurse practitioners and pediatric nurses, the office will also have on-site experts in behavioral and mental health and positive parenting, according to the release.
The second floor will house outpatient services for pediatric specialties, such as cardiology, endocrinology, allergy/immunology, neurology, pulmonology, sports medicine, orthopedics, urology, gastroenterology and ophthalmology, according to the release. Rehabilitation services — physical, occupational and speech therapy — will be on the ground floor.
Last year, Akron Children's outpatient, ER and primary care visits by Stark County children exceeded 134,000, according to the release.
"Aultman is proud of how the partnership between our organization and Akron Children's has taken shape," Chris Remark, CEO of Aultman, said in a prepared statement. "We are using the strengths of two independent systems to serve our community's children, our most valuable resource."