St. E’s begins $4.2M addition

By Denise Dick

Construction of a second patient tower is considered in a long-term expansion plan for the hospital.

BOARDMAN — St. Elizabeth Boardman Health Center saw an increase of 31 average visits per day to its emergency room between 2007 and 2008, leading to plans for a $4.2 million expansion.

The township zoning office issued a permit and certificate of occupancy Friday for the expansion at the McClurg Road hospital’s emergency department.

Sally Hammel, a hospital spokeswoman, expects work to begin “almost immediately.”

The 7,400- square-foot ground-floor expansion is to provide 12 additional emergency treatment areas and an additional nursing station. That will expand from 18 to 30 the number of emergency-unit treatment rooms, Hammel said.

“Over the last five years, we’ve had substantial increases in emergency patient volumes,” she said.

The biggest increase was from 2007 to 2008, when the Boardman campus opened as a full-service hospital and Forum Health’s Beeghly Medical Park closed its emergency room.

“We had 79 average visits per day in 2007 and we had 110 average visits per day in 2008,” the spokeswoman said.

The hospital expects the larger facility to meet demand through 2014.

The zoning permit lists valuation at $290,000 with a $1,740 permit fee, but Benjamin Breniman, planning and zoning director, said the valuation is based on the shell of the building, not its contents.

Work on infrastructure such as water, sewer and electrical lines has already started, he said.

“They’ve been doing site work so if you go by there now, it looks like work has already started,” Hammel said.

The first new, full-service hospital in the Mahoning Valley in 50 years, the facility opened in August 2007 to serve southern portions of Mahoning County and parts of Columbiana County.

The project also includes renovation to relocate the patient registration and triage areas, Hammel said. The physician parking area also is being relocated as part of the project.

The project’s completion is set for fall 2010.

The high usage at the hospital has promoted officials to consider the addition of a second patient tower, but Hammel said that’s part of a long-range plan.