I Am Boundless: New health facilities poised for late summer opening in Worthington

David Knight, director of property management for I Am Boundless, describes the ongoing construction on the new Boundless Health facility May 17 at the Worthington headquarters, 445 E. Dublin-Granville Road.
David Knight, director of property management for I Am Boundless, describes the ongoing construction on the new Boundless Health facility May 17 at the Worthington headquarters, 445 E. Dublin-Granville Road.

The first phase of a multiyear $30 million master plan at the I Am Boundless headquarters at 445 E. Dublin-Granville Road in Worthington is on track for completion and an opening this summer.

David Knight, I Am Boundless director of property management and facilities, said the three-floor facility, is projected to be finished by July, with plans to open in August for both children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as the general public for such services as primary care, dental care and pharmacy.

“My goal is to be completely done by July 31st and be just down to (acquiring) punch-list items,” Knight said.

The new health facility, on the 45-acre I Am Boundless campus at the former Harding Hospital site, will bring an expansion of the medical and dental services the organization had launched in the fall, which are particularly geared to adults and children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

I Am Boundless, a disability- and support-services organization based in Worthington, launched Boundless Health last fall. I Am Boundless plans to open the new facility as a Health Center Program Look-Alike before applying to become a Federally Qualified Health Center in a few months.

An HRSA-designated health center is one that provides "comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary health care services consistent with Health Center Program requirements, like HRSA-funded Health Center Program award recipients," according to the HRSA website at bphc.hrsa.gov.

Boundless Health is in a smaller building on the campus and has one physician and part-time dentist on staff and approximately 25 licensed clinicians and 15 nurses working in such areas as speech and language pathology, behavioral-health therapy, psychiatry, psychological evaluation, primary care and dentistry.

A view of the new Boundless Health facility is shown as construction continues May 17 at the I Am Boundless headquarters.
A view of the new Boundless Health facility is shown as construction continues May 17 at the I Am Boundless headquarters.

Boundless Health executive director Anna Wuerth said the new facility should allow them to add up to five physicians, a team of three full-time dentists and a pharmacy program.

Capacity also will expand, as Boundless Health will go from having only three exam rooms at its current building to 15 on the second floor of the new facility, as well as a room for outpatient medical procedures and six rooms for dentistry on the third floor.

The bottom floor will have 45 rooms, which will host a mix of mostly therapy-related services and administration offices, Knight said.

“Moving to the new building will allow our services to grow dramatically as need dictates,” Wuerth said.

The new health facility is the first part of the I Am Boundless master plan. Other projects lined up in the master plan over the next several years include a training and events facility and a center for autism services.

The new Boundless Health facility is shown under construction May 17.
The new Boundless Health facility is shown under construction May 17.

Boundless envisions the training and events facility as a space to train staff and host large events. The center for autism services is expected to merge the campus’ autism and behavioral-health services into one general area versus having them spread around the property as they are now, according to Boundless president and CEO Patrick Maynard.

“We’re already providing a lot of services for kids with autism and behaviors associated with that, but they’re spread out in different buildings, and it’s really not conducive to their needs," Maynard said. "We’re going to concentrate them on a kind of campus within our campus, where the buildings are grouped all together.”

sborgna@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekSteve

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: I Am Boundless health facilities set for summer opening in Worthington