5 things to know about The Christ Hospital

BY THE NUMBERS: THE CHRIST HOSPITAL HEALTH NETWORK

5,300 employees

555 inpatient beds at its main Mt. Auburn hospital

5 ambulatory centers

181 neighborhood offices in Greater Cincinnati

The Christ Hospital Health Network is going to expand services in a big way in Butler County, with plans to build a new medical center in Liberty Twp. with emergency services.

On July 7, the nonprofit health network announced plans for the 125,000-square-foot medical center, to be built at the growing Interstate 75 interchange with Ohio 129 and Liberty Way.

Detailed plans and a cost figure for the facility aren’t complete yet, but the center will have a freestanding emergency room and helicopter landing pad, extended stay patient rooms and surgical, physical therapy, cardiology, radiology, urology and other services on about 17 acres off Cox Road. The Christ Hospital Medical Center — Liberty Township, as the new facility will be called, should open by the end of 2017.

“It’s just another opportunity for us to provide exceptional care in a community where people live,” Victor DiPilla, vice president and chief business development officer for the system, told Journal-News at the time of the announcement.

The Christ Hospital has existed for more than 125 years and has about 5,300 employees.

Here are five things to know about the hospital network:

1. The basics

The Christ Hospital's main campus is in Mt. Auburn, where it operates a 555-bed, acute care hospital. The network also has five ambulatory centers and 181 neighborhood offices in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky. The main campus offers services in cardiovascular care, spine treatment, women's health, behavioral medicine, orthopedics, emergency care, kidney transplant and a major surgery center. Christ Hospital was founded in 1888 by a group of local citizens led by James Gamble — whose soap business eventually became the Procter & Gamble Co. — with a vision to reduce sickness and poverty in the community.

2. Christ Hospital is already in Butler County

The new Liberty Twp. medical center will be The Christ Hospital's sixth ambulatory center. Also, the network already operates in Butler County an outpatient center at 7335 Yankee Road, Liberty Twp. and a family medicine practice at 7589 Tylers Place Blvd., in West Chester Twp.

3. It’s an award-winning hospital

The Christ Hospital has been recognized as one of the top 50 hospitals in America by U.S. News & World Report for the past 15 years. Greater Cincinnati residents have ranked The Christ Hospital the most preferred for all health care services for 19 consecutive years (National Research Corp.). Also, The Christ Hospital is among 6 percent of hospitals in the nation awarded Magnet recognition for nursing excellence.

4. Key specialties of care

The hospital network's specialties include cardiology, orthopedics and women's health. Later this summer, The Christ Hospital Joint and Spine Center, a $300 million facility on the hospital's main campus, will open to provide comprehensive orthopedic and spine care, education and clinical research.

5. It’s a research intensive hospital

The Carl and Edyth Lindner Research Center at The Christ Hospital has participated in more than 1,200 clinical trials, including 130 trials that are active at the moment. Through those trials, Christ Hospital experts have been the first in the nation to use a mechanical kidney, coronary balloon angioplasty to clear blocked arteries and a ceramic hip replacement, according to the network. The clinical research includes areas of obesity, diabetes, coronary disease, hypertension, new vascular interventional devices, adult stem cell therapies, structural heart disease, cardiovascular surgery, heart failure and electrophysiology.

The Christ Hospital joins a competitive field for health care delivery in Butler and Warren counties, where the following networks already have hospitals and offices: