Columbus health systems invest billions to keep up with central Ohio growth

Columbus has been dubbed one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., and its hospital systems are keeping pace.

All four of Columbus' hospital systems have major developments underway, whether it is adding more patient beds to existing facilities or building skyscraper-sized hospitals in the capital city and surrounding suburbs.

Officials for OhioHealth, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Mount Carmel Health System and Nationwide Children's Hospital all cited the Columbus area's ever-increasing population and their health needs as factors in their completed and ongoing projects.

New developments in and around Columbus brings care closer to home for patients, making it more accessible, Roland Tokarski, OhioHealth's Vice President of Construction, Real Estate and Facilities, said in a statement about OhioHealth's projects. He added that they can also help "decompress volumes" at existing care sites.

OhioHealth focuses on women's health center, downtown expansion

OhioHealth brought several developments to fruition in 2023, such as the new Grant Cancer Center in downtown Columbus and a hospital in Pickerington. The work continues into 2024.

Currently underway is the $400 million 310,000-square-foot expansion of the downtown Columbus campus on East Town Street, consisting of a new medical office building, a five-story parking garage and a new seven-story trauma center housing a new emergency department, trauma bays, 160 patient rooms and two levels of underground parking.

More: Grant Medical Center looks to second phase of Downtown expansion

OhioHealth is also building a $600 million, 590,000-square-foot women's center at Riverside Methodist Hospital, which includes 185 inpatient beds as well as outpatient care. C-section, high-risk obstetrics, gynecological and breast surgery services, neonatal intensive care services and post-partum services will also be made available.

More: OhioHealth to build $600 million facility at Riverside to care for women, families

The health system is also investing $4.6 million in a 13,000-square-foot urgent care location in the Franklinton neighborhood on McDowell Street, housed at ground level as part of the Gravity project.

OhioHealth purchased a 55,000-square-foot, three-story building on Lane Avenue in Upper Arlington. The location, a $10 million project, will be devoted primarily to neuroscience care in the interest of expanding access to experts on multiple sclerosis, strokes, epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

A little further out of the city is the $31 million construction of a new medical campus in Canal Winchester. The 40,000-square-foot facility will house an emergency department and a medical office building consisting of primary care, sports medicine and women’s and reproductive care, among other services.

Mount Carmel invests in the suburbs

Mount Carmel Health System is currently investing in two of Columbus' suburbs: New Albany and Dublin.

Facility upgrades to the New Albany location includes a new $15 million, 8,100-square-foot emergency department,, housing eight beds, including five standard emergency rooms, one trauma room, one sexual assault nurse and a behavioral health room.

Then there's the entirely new 240,000-square-foot hospital campus in Dublin near Sawmill Road and Emerald Parkway, a roughly $250 million project. The campus will consist of an emergency department, 30 inpatient beds, operating and procedures rooms and primary medical care, among other services.

Nationwide Children's continues $3.3 billion project

In 2021, Nationwide Children's Hospital announced a massive downtown expansion that includes a 12-story inpatient tower and three other facilities.

Around $2 billion of the hospital's $3.3 billion development budget will be spent on those new buildings. The in-progress tower will mirror its existing 750,000-square-foot, 302-bed tower already accessible via Parsons Avenue.

Along Livingston Avenue will be a new orthopedic and surgery center, will have more than 50 orthopedic and sports medicine exam rooms, a motion lab and a physical therapy gym.

A parking garage and the hospital's fourth and fifth research buildings will also be constructed along Livingston Avenue.

More: Nationwide Children's to spend $3.3 billion on new hospital tower, more programs, research

OSU Wexner Medical Center's pride and joy: an 820-bed skyscraper

The Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center has several ongoing projects, but the one generating the most buzz is its 1.9 million-square-foot, 820-bed behemoth of a new 26-story facility.

The new inpatient hospital will physically connect the current James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, in an effort to make it easier to connect services throughout the campus and encourage team-based medical care for patients. It's estimated cost is nearly $2 billion.

The hospital's top three floors will be dedicated to women's care, labor and delivery, with 51 neonatal intensive care beds in partnership with Nationwide Children's Hospital.

More: 'A feat of engineering': A look inside Ohio State's $1.9-billion inpatient hospital tower

OSU is also constructing an "interdisciplinary health sciences center," part of an over $155 million project that will build a new 100,000 square-foot facility that will hopefully bring together the seven health science colleges ‒ medicine, nursing, dentistry, optometry, pharmacy, public health and veterinary medicine ‒ for more collaborative research.

The new facility will be built on 10th Avenue. The second part of that project includes renovating 120,000 square feet of Hamilton Hall, one of the university's learning facilities.

OSU is also working on a new $183 million outpatient care center in Powell, on 30 acres of land across from Olentangy Liberty High School on the corner of Home Road and Sawmill Parkway, which they hope will increase access to primary and specialty health care services for people who might normally commute to Columbus for such care.

Updates to the Martha Morehouse Outpatient Care Center on Kenny Road are also on the horizon, with a budget of $42.2 million to add 8,500 square feet of laboratory and registration space, as well as renovating 105,000 square feet across various existing departments.

Ohio State East Hospital will see $21.4 million in expansions and renovations, including to the surgery center and operating rooms to accommodate new technology and additional surgical services.

At the East campus, as well as at the University Hospital, $24 million is being allotted to upgrade trash and linen systems.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus health systems invest billions as city's population grows.