Boardman campus of St. E’s celebrates first anniversary

By Denise Dick

The hospital has a work force of 500.

BOARDMAN — In its first year, more than 37,400 people have come to the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center for care.

More than 5,500 people have been admitted and about 6,000 surgeries and endoscopies performed.

President Genie Aubel reviewed the hospital’s first-year statistics at a Thursday ceremony marking the first anniversary with burial of a time capsule in front of the Market Street facility. The 108-bed hospital, the first new, full-service hospital in the Mahoning Valley in 50 years, opened Aug. 1, 2007. Select Specialty Services, a long-term, acute-care facility, has 20 more beds on the hospital’s seventh floor.

With about 500 admissions per month, Humility of Mary Health Partners already is considering the addition of a second patient tower to serve more people.

Some of the patient load is attributable to the closure of Forum Health’s Beeghly Medical Center. Other patients formerly visited other area hospitals, Aubel said.

Robert Shroder, president and chief executive officer of HMHP, said the $83 million hospital has met its goals: serving patients in southern Mahoning and northern Columbiana counties, alleviating overcrowding at St. E’s downtown and drawing patients requiring advanced procedures to the downtown hospital.

Aubel pointed to other accomplishments, too.

“We’re in the 97th percentile for patient satisfaction rates,” she said, referring to national standards.

The hospital was designed with a hotel-like feel, boasting cool hues, artwork, waterfalls, private patient rooms complete with space for family members and open visiting hours.

Staff hear from patients and their families about their satisfaction with the care they receive there, Aubel said.

The facility employs about 500 full- and part-time people, and the president said they get regular requests from new physicians seeking privileges there.

Construction of the hospital also is drawing more medically related businesses to the county’s southern end.

Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector, said several buildings are planned in the southern parts of the township and many are likely to house medical offices.

“I would speculate that many of the inquiries we’re getting for office space are due to being locations near the hospital,” he said.

Bishop George V. Murry of the Diocese of Youngstown officiated at the anniversary ceremony and doused the time capsule with holy water.

The capsule, likely to remain buried for 100 years, contains a “letter to the future” from Shroder and Leonard Schiavone, board of directors chairman, facts from hospital construction, statistics from the first year of operation, a Vindicator insert from the grand opening, the history of the Sisters of the Humility of Mary and a price list of common medical procedures.