By Cheryl Powell, The Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio
Jul. 23–A new hospital in Akron for critically ill patients who require long stays could jump-start more cooperation between the city’s rival health-care systems.
In mid-August, national hospital chain Select Medical Corp. will open a long-term acute-care hospital on East Market Street in partnership with cross-town rivals Akron General Health System and Summa Health System.
Select is overseeing the hospital’s day-to-day operations and holds the majority stake in the venture; Akron General and Summa have equal minority shares. Specifics of the joint ownership deal are not being released.
Officials from the three partners and the city will be at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:30 this morning for the 53,000-square-foot, two-story facility known as Select Specialty Hospital-Akron.
The $20 million project is among the first major initiatives in a biomedical corridor designated by the city to promote medical-related development.
Project developer Mike Wojno, president and chief executive of Wojno Development, calls the new hospital an excellent example of “co-op-etition.” Wojno’s business oversaw the project and owns the building, which is being leased to Select under a long-term deal.
“It’s the cooperation of competitors,” Wojno said. “I really think that’s something that’s going to be key, not only to the biomedical corridor but to all of Northeast Ohio.”
Collaboration model
Summa President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Strauss said that “any chance for Akron General and Summa Health System to collaborate, especially without duplicating an asset in the community, makes all the sense in the world.
“Our goal is that this is a model for further collaboration at a time when this city needs further collaboration.”
Strauss said said rehabilitation is another area that could benefit from collaboration between Summa and Akron General.
In addition, Akron General and Summa continue talks with Akron Children’s Hospital, the University of Akron and the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy about a partnership for research, said Alan Bleyer, Akron General’s president and chief executive.
The hospitals also could be partners to care for medically underserved residents, Bleyer said.
“Where it makes sense from the standpoint of community service, access and cost, then there certainly are many other opportunities that the local health-care providers can entertain discussions,” he said.
Acute care is combined
Select already ran separate long-term acute-care units known as “hospitals within hospitals” at Akron General and Summa’s Akron City Hospital.
Long-term acute-care hospitals (LTACHS) are described as a middle ground between nursing homes and hospital intensive-care units, with patients staying an average of 25 days or longer.
Most patients have multiple health problems, which require a team approach to getting them well and helping them return to their home or a skilled nursing facility, said Kimberly Thomas, chief executive of Select Specialty Hospital-Akron.
Conditions often treated at LTACHs include respiratory problems, heart failure, renal failure and diabetes, she said.
To account for the increased level of care needed by the patients, Select and similar specialty hospitals get higher payments than general hospitals do from Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and some younger disabled Americans.
But possible changes to Medicare payment rules for hospitals-within-hospitals prompted Select and the two Akron hospitals to talk in 2006 about building a stand-alone facility, Bleyer said.
“Rather than having a free-standing, 28-bed hospital on West Market and another 28-bed unit on East Market, it just made a great deal of sense for us to come together and collaborate,” he said.
The 34-bed Select unit inside Akron General closed in the spring. The space has been converted into Akron General’s neuroscience unit for patients with brain-spinal cord trauma, seizures, strokes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases and other neurological problems.
Select will continue to run a unit inside City Hospital until the new facility opens Aug. 15, Thomas said.
Summa still is determining how the space will be used after the LTACH moves, spokesman Mike Bernstein said.
Unit at old Taylor site
The new hospital is at the site of the former Taylor Pontiac dealership, across from the Haven of Rest and adjacent to the former post office, which is being leased by Summa for information technology and finance employees.
The new hospital will employ about 210, including 55 new positions, Thomas said.
The facility has 60 private rooms, including six high-observation beds similar to intensive-care units. The building is designed to provide services such as CT scans and other tests, lab work, dialysis and rehabilitation in-house.
“This is truly a state-of-the-art facility,” Thomas said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or [email protected].
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