TriHealth officials last October estimated a total investment of $45 million into the Bethesda Butler campus since purchasing the former Butler County Medical Center in 2012, including a $15 million emergency department.
“When you look at this campus, our goal is to make this an all-encompassing service for the community,” said Steve Mombach, vice president of ambulatory care.
Current services include a 24-hour, 16-bed emergency center; eight-bed medical and surgical inpatient unit; the TriHealth institutes for cancer, heart, digestive, and orthopedic care; a sleep center; physical therapy; and physician offices, according to TriHealth.
“It’s all an evolution of need and growth, and we’re just doing this step by step,” Mombach said.
Construction started in mid-2014 on the current expansion — that when completed in a year — will include another 38 inpatient beds, dining services, an expanded pharmacy, additional spaces for family members, and a chapel, officials said.
Chuck Brown, site administrator, said phase one is completed and included new locker rooms and a break room for physicians. But the bulk of the work is taking place in phases two and three that started this year.
Phase two will add an additional 3,000 square feet for supply and sterilization needs. Phase three will add the 38 new patient beds within a 48,000-square-foot addition to the existing medical center at 3125 Hamilton Mason Road, according to Brown.
“We’re upgrading and trying to be innovative; make it less institutional feel and more of a hospitality feel when you walk through the door,” Brown said.
Mombach said there are about 250 TriHealth employees on the campus, with another 40 jobs being added by next spring. He said positions in environmental services, hospitality and security have already been added.
When all is completed this time next year, the hospital will have 48 total medical/surgical rooms, including six intensive care unit rooms.
The hospital converted two regular patient rooms into ICU rooms this January to start handling more complex patients, Mombach said. The ICU rooms have a higher-level of technology, more monitors, ICU-trained nurses and hospitalists working overnight, Mombach said.
He said for the past six months, the emergency and ICU rooms have piloted a virtual social worker that communicates remotely with patients through a camera and computer monitor.
Just this week the hospital also opened its own blood bank to handle higher-acuity cases, including surgeries with a lot of blood loss. This summer the hospital will also begin offering dialysis, Brown said.
But Mombach said there still remains room to grow. There are an additional three acres left to be developed and about 2,600 square feet of office space left.
Joining the Bethesda Butler campus by the end of April will be another seven physicians, Brown said, bringing the total to 42 doctors working on the campus next month, some of which are non-TriHealth doctors.
Five doctors from the TriHealth Surgical Institute, off of Eaton Avenue in Hamilton, will relocate to the campus. As well, the primary care practice of Drs. Thomas Willke and William Fenton will move to the campus next month.
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