BY THE NUMBERS: CINCINNATI CHILDREN’S LIBERTY CAMPUS
200,000-plus inpatient and outpatient visits in 2014
600-plus employees, the township's largest single employer
$50 million, nearly, invested to build a new patient floor and make other renovations
70,000-square-feet building addition as part of campus renovations
Before Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center opened in 2008 a pediatric hospital in Butler County at its Liberty Campus, families were forced to make compromises for their child’s health care needs, said one local pediatrician.
Multiple community hospitals serve Butler and Warren counties, but their focus is not pediatrics, said Dr. James Davis, of Oxford Pediatrics & Adolescents Inc., at a ribbon cutting ceremony held Friday to celebrate the completion of a nearly $50 million building expansion of the Liberty Twp. hospital. The practice has offices in Oxford and Ross Twp.
He believes it’s the mission of all local pediatricians to practice “the Children’s Hospital way,” but there are still times in every child’s life when they need to make a visit to a hospital, such as for head trauma or trouble breathing.
However, local doctors were faced with the decision of which hospital to send their young patients to — the nearest hospital doors or the 30-minute drive to Cincinnati Children’s downtown for specialized care.
Now that more services have been added at Liberty Campus, that’s not a choice doctors have to make anymore.
“They have moved the mountain 30 minutes closer to our kids and it eliminates that compromise,” Davis said.
Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus added a fourth inpatient floor, making room for an additional 30 overnight beds. A total 42 inpatient beds open for patient use on Aug. 17.
The approximately 70,000-square-foot building expansion also adds a kitchen; full-service cafeteria; expanded medical and surgery specialty clinics; new outpatient pharmacy; expanded gift shop and inpatient pharmacy; renovated laboratory and blood bank; a family resource center; and support space for Materials Management and Information Services, said Char Mason, vice president of operations for Cincinnati Children’s. Also, an on-call operating team is now available 24/7, whereas before, surgeries were only done during scheduled hours, she said.
About 200 full-time equivalent jobs were added as a result, and now more than 600 employees work at the Liberty Campus, Mason said. Those numbers make it the township’s largest employer.
Liberty Twp. is a “regional crossroads” for Butler and Warren counties, Michael Fisher, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Children’s told the Journal-News on Friday.
“What we know is access to world-class medical care for children is an amazing gift and to have that more proximate to our friends up here in the Butler and Warren county areas … is peace of mind to have it that convenient,” Fisher said.
Even though Cincinnati Children’s — which U.S. News & World Report rates as the third best children’s hospital in the country — receives referrals worldwide, its never lost sight of its primary mission to care for children in its home communities, hospital officials said. Investments in Liberty Campus back-up that commitment, they said.
“We have never pursued growth for growth’s sake; what we are focused on is how do we continue our relentless passion of being a leader in improving child health,” Fisher said.
Renovations at the Butler County hospital included new, more advanced technologies such as telemedicine. Each of the new 42 inpatient rooms is hardwired with high-resolution cameras that will be used to communicate with area pediatricians and specialists from the downtown hospital and around the world, said Dr. Frederick Ryckman, senior vice president of medical operations for Cincinnati Children’s.
“The resolution on them is sharp enough that you can read the writing on a syringe from the far side of the room,” Ryckman said.
The telemedicine will allow a pediatrician in their own office, or even from home, to “tele-round with the health care team here so they can continually be a part of the important decision making for the child they’re going to care for after discharge,” Ryckman said.
Ryckman said for very complex patients, telemedicine could eliminate the need for the family to drive around to various different specialists to get their integrated care.
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