Urgent care to open at Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Twp. campus

An urgent care service will be the latest addition to open at the expanding Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus, already the site of two multi-million construction projects.

On Nov. 3, Cincinnati Children’s will open Urgent Care in Liberty Twp., off Yankee Road, to treat children with urgent, but non-emergency medical issues, according to hospital officials. Commonly treated ailments are simple lacerations and wounds; fractures and injuries to arms and legs; minor burns; ear aches; runny nose, cough and fevers for babies more than 2-months-old; mild asthma attacks; stomach flu; diarrhea; vomiting; rashes; and strep throat.

Services are meant to complement a child’s pediatrician’s office. The urgent care will be open when primary care pediatrician offices tend to be closed, according to hospital spokesman Terry Loftus.

Hours for Liberty Campus Urgent Care, which will be located on the first floor, will be: 6 p.m. to midnight Mondays to Fridays; and noon to midnight on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

“By providing patients with the right care in the right place, we not only lower the cost to the patients, but help to decompress the Emergency Department so it can care for critically ill patients,” Loftus said.

Unlike other urgent care centers, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center treats children up to 20 years only at its urgent care locations. Offices are staffed by board certified pediatricians and pediatric nurses, Loftus said. Cincinnati Children's Mason Campus, on Children's Drive in Deerfield Twp., is also an urgent care site for the hospital network.

Meanwhile, construction is continuing to add a new inpatient floor and open a proton therapy center for cancer treatment at Liberty Campus.

In 2013, Cincinnati Children's announced $160 million in expansion plans for its Liberty Campus in Butler County, a standalone hospital with emergency services that first opened in 2008. The facility can be seen from Interstate 75, and is located off the Ohio 129 interchange.

Work is underway to build a fourth floor onto the hospital to accommodate about 30 new inpatient beds. Once complete next year, the Liberty Twp. pediatric hospital will have 42 inpatient beds for overnight stays. Work on the building expansion will also add a kitchen; cafeteria; clinic and therapy space; expanded pharmacy and gift shop; renovated lab and blood bank; a family resource center; and support space for Materials Management and Information Services, Loftus said.

“Maintaining daily operations of the Liberty Campus during construction is ongoing, and we are planning with the respective departments and services during times of construction to ensure we can continue to serve our patients and families well,” said Char Mason, vice president of operations for the hospital, in a statement. “We are also working with clinical teams to develop the models of care, establish telemedicine and monitoring processes, recruit and hire staff, and the many other activities associated with planning for the expanded inpatient beds and services to open next August.”

Concurrently, crews started work at the turn of 2013-2014 to build a more than 80,000-square-foot proton therapy and research center at Liberty Campus. Proton therapy is expected to open in 2017.

Liberty Campus averages about 180,000 patient visits a year, according to hospital officials.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has multiple facilities throughout the region including its main campus in Avondale on Burnet Avenue.

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