Published: Sunday, July 29, 2007
St. E's follows population out of the city
The 128-bed Boardman
hospital is preparing to open for service.
By DENISE DICK
BOARDMAN — As Mahoning County's population shifts south, away from the Mahoning River, the businesses and facilities that serve those residents have followed.
One of the latest is St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center, the first new full-service in-patient hospital in the Mahoning Valley in more than 50 years, which will open its doors this week.
Wednesday is the first day for the 128-bed, $83 million hospital. The first four floors open for business that day.
The new campus, which includes all private patient rooms designed in cool hues in a hotel-like setting, also is expected to draw patients from northern Columbiana County and possibly parts of Pennsylvania, said Robert Shroder, president and chief executive of Humility of Mary Health Partners.
Mahoning County's population is moving south and that was part of the reason HMHP chose the location at Market Street and McClurg Road.
Both Beaver and Springfield townships in southern Mahoning County, for example, have drawn more people to build new homes in recent years.
The boom for Beaver started in 2000 when the township issued 46 permits for single-family homes. It's a trend that's continued in subsequent years.
That's about the time growth started to increase for Springfield, too. That township issued its most single-family home permits in 2004 with 50.
Spreading out
Reid Dulberger, executive vice president for the Regional Chamber, points out that 100 years ago, most of the Valley's population was situated around the Mahoning River because that's where the jobs were.
"Since then, we've spread out, and we're continuing to spread out," he said.
Dulberger also expects the new hospital to spawn other medical facilities and offices nearby.
Some of that is already happening.
Last year, Boardman township zoning office issued a conditional use permit to allow four professional medical office buildings on Market Street at Washington Boulevard. Each one-story building is to be about 4,200 square feet.
The Ankle and Foot Care Centers was the first built in what constitutes a commercial planned unit development.
Mahoning Valley Hospital also broke ground on a new 28-bed acute-care facility planned for South Avenue near Walker Mill Road.
Additional facilities may be planned.
"We get inquiries all the time" about new facilities, including some medical, said Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector.
A community hospital
Floors five through seven of the Boardman St. E's are set to open Sept. 1, Oct. 1 and in early November, respectively. The seventh floor is a pediatric unit created through a partnership with Akron Children's Hospital.
But Shroder stressed that the new hospital will add to other HMHP facilities, including St. E's in downtown Youngstown, not detract from them.
"This is a community hospital," Shroder said, referring to the Boardman site.
"Referrals from community hospitals feed" main hospitals, such as St. Elizabeth Health Center on Belmont Avenue.
The new facility will also help alleviate strains on capacity at the 400-bed St. E's in the city, where there's sometimes a wait for a nonemergency bed.
Allowing some patients to be lodged in Boardman frees up space to possibly convert some rooms on Belmont to private ones.
New features
The new hospital was built onto the cancer center, which opened in 1999, and the emergency and diagnostic center that opened about four years ago.
Shroder said the new hospital, borne out HMHP's strategic plan, also was constructed to allow expansion down the road if needed.
Besides added privacy, each room features a flat-screen television and wireless capability.
Genie Aubel, president of the Boardman campus, said the hospital features were identified by focus groups.
The rooms provide space not only for the patient but for the patient's family too.
They can stay the night in the hospital with their loved ones if they want.
"Research also shows that that speeds up a patient's recovery," Aubel said.
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