University Hospital Ahuja Set to Begin Expansion
By Eric Althoff
BEACHWOOD, Ohio—The University Hospital Ahuja Medical Center, located in the eastern Cleveland suburbs, is set to commence on a $200 million expansion that will add a second five-floor hospital tower as well as a two-floor sports medicine complex.
The hospital announced that the expansion will entail new labor and delivery services, a Level 2 neonatal intensive care unit as well as increase the emergency room’s overall patient capacity. Furthermore, the project entails an expansion to its radiology services, a women’s health center and what the company called “the largest sports rehab complex in Northeast Ohio.”
Specialized services to be included in the new facility will include an ambulatory surgical center entailing eight operating rooms. Additionally, there will be nearly a dozen new examination rooms specifically dedicated to the University Hospital Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute.
The hospital system says that the newer additions will incorporate into the UH Ahuja Medical Center’s existent design paradigm, incorporating wellness gardens and health education areas.
The expansion is scheduled to get underway before the end of the year and be completed in 2022; it will reportedly be designed by HKS Inc. the architecture firm that designed the existing Ahuja campus.
The hospital also announced this month the addition of a men’s health center, according to Cleveland.com. The Cutler Center for Men’s Comprehensive Care will be the next phase of expansion to UH Ahuja Medical Center. The center’s facilities will be located jointly both at Ahuja as well as at the UH Otis Moss Health Center in the nearby Fairfax neighborhood. Two more locations are planned in the future.
“We will address the huge number of men not engaged with health care and redefine what men’s health care will look like,” said Dr. Lee Ponsky, the chair and professor of urology at UH Cleveland Medical Center, and who is set to become the director of the new Cutler Center. “In Greater Cleveland, 250,000 less men than women saw a doctor in the last year. We want to find out why, evaluate social determinants of health care, develop a model that engages men and bring that number down.”
“UH Ahuja Phase 2 addresses patient needs in Northeast Ohio for advanced, high-quality health care,” added Dr. Dan Simon, president of UH Medical Centers, in a statement.
The new Cutler Center is expected to add 1,000 full- and part-time jobs, according to Cleveland.com, and will employ specialists in heart disease, digestive health, mental health, orthopedics and urology.