University Hospitals to build $32.4 million health center in North Ridgeville

A new addition is on the way to the bustling health care market of Lorain County.

University Hospitals on Thursday, Oct. 22, announced it plans to build a $32.4 million outpatient health center and freestanding emergency department in North Ridgeville. Construction will start later this year, and the facility is expected to be completed in 2017. A spokeswoman for UH said it’s too early to pinpoint the opening date or to discuss staffing levels at the center.

The proposed 50,300-square-foot center will sit on a 30-acre site on the north side of Lorain Road, just east of the entrance to the Ohio Turnpike. The site is visible from I-480 and I-80/Ohio Turnpike, and it can be accessed from state Route 10.

Dr. Donald Sheldon, president of UH Community Hospitals West Region, said in a news release that the new health center “will allow us to meet the increased demand for outpatient services and provide primary and specialty care in the communities surrounding UH Elyria Medical Center and St. John Medical Center.”

Designs for the facility still are being finalized. UH said initial plans include a freestanding emergency department, outpatient laboratory services, and physical therapy, primary and specialty care physician services.

Services will include UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital pediatric services, heart & vascular, orthopedics, pain management, general surgery, and rehabilitation, UH said.

The emergency department will be operational 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. It will be “fully integrated medically and operationally with the UH system and provide leading-edge technology and imaging,” UH said.

Lorain County is a hot market for health care these days.

Cleveland Clinic in 2011 opened the 190,000-square-foot Richard E. Jacobs Health Center in Avon, and it’s building a $143 million inpatient hospital in that city.

UH, meanwhile, rolled EMH Healthcare in Elyria into its enterprise in 2014, and the University Hospitals Rehabilitation Hospital in Avon, a 50-bed, 55,000-square-foot facility, is scheduled to open in 2016.