Growth Report 2017: Akron Children’s Hospital Expands to Meet Needs
Editor’s Note: The following story is from Growth Report 2017, published by The Business Journal.
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley added several services in 2016 to bring quality care even closer to home for families, officials say.
Palliative care, which provides care to children with complex, chronic or serious conditions, is now available at the Beeghly campus in Boardman and in patient families’ homes. The hospital also opened a psychiatric intake response center in its emergency department, which provides behavioral health evaluations.
School health care is now available in Warren City Schools and rehab services in the hospital’s Warren office. Additionally, audiology testing with sedation, which helps diagnose hearing loss and nervous system disorders for young children and newborns at least four months old, is now offered at the Beeghly campus. And two more Akron Children’s pediatrics offices opened in Lisbon and Austintown.
One area of notable growth is in the number of employees. More than 700 are now employed by the hospital – a 3.7% increase from 2015, according to the hospital.
As part of its commitment to the Valley, officials point to the $18.6 million construction project that will expand the Boardman campus by more than 51,000 square feet. The expansion broke ground in December 2015 and is on track to open this summer.
“The goals of this expansion are to improve access for families, increase our primary care capacity, relocate specialty services from the Boardman Medical Pavilion to the Beeghly campus, build our capacity for growth and consolidate our clinics,” says Sharon Hrina, vice president of Akron Children’s Hospital Mahoning Valley. “We have been in this community for a long time and are happy to invest and show that we’ll be here for many years to come.”
Funding for the project comes from the hospital’s capital budget, as well as philanthropic support from the community.
In 2016, Mahoning Valley donors contributed nearly $3 million to support local programs and services. Since the opening of the Beeghly campus in 2008, a total of $19.3 million has been raised from 15,000 donors, officials say.
The Beeghly Campus expansion project is a component of the Vision for our Valley’s Children campaign, which is in progress. The campaign, with a goal of raising $25 million by 2020, focuses on four key areas: basic annual needs, facility and campus improvements, endowment and planned gifts, people and programs.
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