Forum to move services from Beeghly on Dec. 28

Services to be moved from Beeghly to Northside include labor and delivery.

YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health will stop offering medical services at Beeghly Medical Park in Boardman and move them to Northside Medical Center on Dec. 28.

Late in November, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann cleared the way for the move when he approved the sale of Beeghly Medical Park, 6505 Market St., to Akron Children’s Hospital.

Services that will be moved to Northside, 500 Gypsy Lane, according to a public notice published in The Vindicator, include:

ULabor and delivery, the mother/baby unit, and maternity and newborn nursery care, effective at 7 a.m. Any woman who is expecting to deliver a baby at Beeghly Medical Park at or after 7 a.m. should instead go to Northside Medical Center.

UBeeghly emergency and diagnostic services and Forum Health Diagnostics-MRI, effective at 11 p.m. Anyone who is expecting to utilize these services at Beeghly at or after 11 p.m. should instead go to Northside.

Forum said last month it was closing its ambulatory surgery department at Beeghly.

Akron Children’s and Humility of Mary Health Partners are in the process of purchasing Beeghly Medical Park, where they plan to establish a pediatric care center.

After Dann approved the $26 million deal, William Considine, Akron Children’s president and chief executive officer, said he hoped to finalize the sale by the end of the year.

Considine said Akron Children's also plans to spend $7 million to $10 million on renovations, and $5 million for equipment in converting the facility to a full-service children's hospital.

HMHP, which has had an affiliation agreement since 2005 with Akron Children's to provide pediatric services in the Mahoning Valley, will contribute money to buy the real estate at Beeghly, a spokeswoman said, and will share in the profit and losses of the pediatric service line there.

At present, Akron Children’s operates a pediatric unit in HMHP’s St. Elizabeth Health Center on Belmont Avenue, and had planned to locate a hospital on one floor of St. Elizabeth's new hospital in Boardman before taking an interest in Beeghly.

More recently, HMHP announced plans to lease the seventh floor to Select Specialty Hospital, a long-term acute care facility.

Robert M. Howard, administrative liaison for Akron Children’s, said the goal is to be in operation at Beeghly in 2008. No timetable has been established, but he said the priorities will be in-patient and emergency pediatric units.