About five months after agreeing to buy the former Bethesda Oak Hospital, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has started converting parts of the Avondale campus into a research facility.

        One part will be ready for occupancy in about a month. Another will be complete by early 2003, said Dr. Thomas Boat, director of the Children's Hospital Research Foundation.

        The first project involves converting two floors of Bethesda Oak's Winslow building for use in “nonlaboratory” research, such as offices and computers for epidemiology, biostatistics and preventive health care.

        This move will, in turn, allow the hospital to complete 19 “wet labs” for other research programs at its main campus, Dr. Boat said.

        By early 2003, Children's also plans to convert the second floor of Bethesda Oak's main hospital building into a clinical research center, where patients can go for experimental treatments and follow-up diagnostic tests.

        Bethesda Oak, once one of the busiest maternity hospitals in the city, closed in 2000 after years of financial losses. In December, Children's Hospital announced a deal to buy the 14-building, 15.6-acre campus then lease about half of it back to Tri- Health, the hospital group that had been running Bethesda Oak.

        The Bethesda Oak projects reflect the latest in a building boom at Children's Hospital, considered one of the top 10 pediatric medical centers in America.

        The hospital remains on track with a planned Labor Day opening for its new clinical care tower at Burnet and Erkenbrecher avenues. In fact, some rooms already have been pressed into use as “overflow space,” Dr. Boat said.

        The hospital also is expanding in College Hill, where it plans to convert parts of the former Phoenix International campus into mental health services.

        After that, the next big project will be replacing the soon-to-be-empty original hospital building. But what may be built there has not been decided, Dr. Boat said.

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