Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Announces New $365 Million Expansion
By Fay Harvey
CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus is planning a $365 million expansion-renovation project to improve the quality care for families in Butler County and surrounding communities. Proposed plans include more than doubling the current number of hospital beds, adding surgical operating rooms, implementing advanced technology and constructing a new medical office building for outpatient specialty clinics.
Cincinnati Children’s 61-acre Liberty Campus opened in 2008 and has nearly tripled its patient volume 17 years later.
“In the very first year that Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus was open, the patients we cared for had approximately 109,000 visits,” said Evaline Alessandrini, chief operating officer of Cincinnati Children’s in a company statement. “Now, our Liberty Campus has nearly tripled in volume of care delivered—with more than 282,000 patient encounters a year, including an average of 60 surgeries a day.”
The current 42-bed hospital will receive a four-story addition, with plans for four new operating rooms, three new surgical rooms, 10 new emergency rooms and 72 new inpatient beds, bringing the bed count to 114 upon completion. The new space will improve workflow and bring operations closer to home for patients through the introduction of state-of-the-art imaging technology and additional services.
More than 100,000 square feet of existing hospital space will undergo renovations, expanding the lab, pharmacy and Sterile Processing Department, while also increasing administrative and health education areas. A dining area, new lobby and patient drop-off are also included in the plans.
Site preparation will begin in March of this year with the facility additions slated for completion in summer 2028. Renovations should be completed in summer 2029.
The new 150,000-square-foot, four-story medical office next door will allow for more space at the Liberty Campus in the meantime by offering administrative functions and clinical services currently housed there. Construction on the new facility will begin this summer and is expected to be complete in 2027.
“Another benefit of these improvements includes allowing families to be cared for closer to their homes in Butler County or surrounding communities versus requiring transfer to Avondale,” Alessandrini said in the statement. “Being able to keep kids at the Liberty Campus will also increase patient and surgical capacity at our Burnet Campus, which is equipped for highly complex surgeries and treatment of rare disorders.”