BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The heavy work begins Monday on an extensive construction project at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
After several weeks of site preparation, crews are starting construction on a new research wing and education center, two major parts of a $128 million expansion of the nationally acclaimed pediatric hospital.
The three-year project at Children's Hospital is by far the largest of several health care construction jobs in Greater Cincinnati. Its scope rivals the $147 million Fort Washington Way road project.
Elsewhere, several projects are continuing the rapid expansion of suburban health care services, including an expansion at Bethesda North Hospital in Montgomery and a $35 million "heart hospital" under construction in Dayton.
Next year, even more suburban medical work is expected, especially in Warren County, the only county in the area that doesn't have a hospital.
When complete in late 2001, the Children's Hospital complex at the edge of Corryville and Avondale will add the research wing, a seven-story clinical care tower, an education center and an 800-space parking garage.
Construction has started on the research wing. Some
site-clearing work also has started for the education center. The other parts of the project will begin later, said facilities manager Thomas Kinman.
Already, the construction has created a parking crunch for visitors and employees by eliminating a surface parking lot along Burnet Avenue.
The clinical tower -- the most visible part of the project -- will rise above the corner of Burnet and Erkenbrecher avenues. But before it can be built, crews have to finish installing a 3 million gallon cooling tank and building a small expansion to an underground garage. At Bethesda North Hospital in Montgomery, crews have completed about 25 percent of the work planned in a two-year, $26 million expansion and renovation.
Bethesda North is part of Tri-Health, which also includes Good Samaritan and Bethesda Oak hospitals.
The Bethesda North project includes new cardiac recovery and critical care units and an employee parking garage. In addition, the emergency department, cardiac catheterization lab, telemetry and endoscopy units will be expanded.
So far, the new endoscopy unit and a "Minor ED" area for treating non-critical emergency cases have been completed, said spokeswoman Susan Olin.
The Bethesda North project follows the nearly wrapped-up $90 million expansion at Jewish Hospital in Kenwood, part of the rival Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati.
Meanwhile, TriHealth continues planning work for an expansion of its 24-hour emergency center in Lebanon, one of several medical projects proposed for Warren County.
Options that have been discussed include adding same-day surgery, a mobile CT scanner and other diagnostic equipment, and more specialty health services.
Farther north, construction is expected to be complete in May for the $35 million Dayton Heart Hospital.
Construction started in July on this for-profit joint venture
between MedCath Inc. and the Franciscan Health System of the Ohio Valley. Plans call for a three-story, 48-bed hospital at the Franciscan's Dayton campus focusing exclusively on cardiac care.
The project is expected to intensify a tug-of-war between Cincinnati and Dayton hospitals for cardiac patients in Warren County. It also symbolizes the entry of for-profit "boutique" hospitals into the region.
