By Andrea Cordle
Southwest Editor
“This is the largest project in the history of Grove City,” said City Administrator Chuck Boso.
Boso is referring to the Mount Carmel Health System plan to expand operations at its Grove City facility, located off Hoover Road.
On March 12, Mount Carmel announced that it will invest $355 million to expand the 1-year-old Grove City facility to a full-service hospital by 2018. Mount Carmel Grove City will be the first hospital in the market south of the Interstate 70 corridor and will expand access to care for the rapidly growing southern part of the county.
“We commend Mount Carmel for their investment,” said Boso. “They have been a great partner and we are grateful they chose the Grove City community.”
According to Mount Carmel, the project would include a 500,000 square foot inpatient hospital and 120,000 square foot medical office building. The new hospital in Grove City will feature more than 200 private rooms and seven floors of clinical services, including inpatient and outpatient surgery, intensive care, a mother/infant unit, oncology and palliative care and expanded emergency services. The five story medial office building will include services for women’s health and other physician offices.
The Grove City campus will also be the new headquarters for Mount Carmel’s Graduate Medical Education.
“The residents of Grove City and surrounding communities have long considered Mount Carmel their healthcare home. The first phase of Mount Carmel Grove City opened just last year and has been embraced by the residents of Grove City and the surrounding communities in the region to an even greater extent than we expected,” said Sean McKibben, president of Mount Carmel West.
Boso said bringing quality health care to the community has been a city target for many years.
“Health care services so close is always a benefit,” said Boso. “Timing when you have a health concern can mean life and death.”
Not only has the health care access been as asset to the residents, it has saved the local emergency services time and resources.
“The arrival of Mount Carmel Grove City’s emergency facility in 2014 has improved our efficiency by shortening patient transport times,” said Fire Chief Rick Dawson, of the Jackson Township Fire Division. “Shorter transport times mean improved patient outcomes and results in putting our equipment in service sooner.”
Jay Noojin, fire chief for Pleasant Township said his department transports quite a bit of patients to Mount Carmel Grove City. He said the location of the hospital can save a few minutes of transport time, depending on where the emergency is located in the township.
“Overall, it’s been a benefit to us,” Noojin said.
This investment will also benefit the city. According to Boso, the hospital expansion will mean more employees in Grove City, which could bring in $2 million in annual revenue.
“The city’s projected total income tax is $20 million, so this is roughly 10 percent,” said Boso.
More employees and more visitors also means more traffic.
Boso said he does not see that as an issue.
“The city has planned well,” said Boso. “We have had over decades of improvements.”
Boso cited the recent roadway improvements to the interchange of Interstate 71 and State Route 665, along with the improvements to North Meadows Drive and Hoover Road.
“We have the infrastructure to handle the increase in traffic,” said the city administrator.
After construction is complete in Grove City, Mount Carmel West’s inpatient operations will transfer to Grove City and the hospital’s west campus will undergo a $46 million transformation.
Construction on Mount Carmel Grove City is expected to begin this year.
Once built, the hospital system will be the largest private employer in Grove City. The largest employer (public) in the city currently is the South-Western City Schools District.
