BELLEVUE, Ohio - After 88 years of caring for patients on Northwest Street, Bellevue Hospital will move into a sprawling, $36 million facility on U.S. 20 next month.
The new hospital will open March 13, and officials hope to transfer all patients from the old 65-bed facility within a couple of hours that Sunday morning, hospital president and CEO Michael Winthrop said.
Yesterday, Mr. Winthrop and other hospital staff members toured the two-story, red-brick medical center on Bellevue's west side.
The new hospital is bigger, has more beds and private patient rooms, and includes upgraded equipment such as a hydrotherapy pool and more powerful MRI and CAT scan units.
"We just needed bigger facilities," said Tom Barth, chairman of the hospital's board of trustees.
The new hospital includes 129,000 square feet, compared with 88,000 square feet for the current facility, which has been expanded several times since it opened in March, 1917.
The new facility will have 85 beds, and all 32 patient rooms will be private. Those rooms and nine rooms in the family birthing center include sofa beds, tall windows with outside views, and cherry armoires "for a more homey feel," said Deb Phenicie, an administrative assistant at the hospital.
The number of parking spaces increases from 262 to 336, and the new emergency department will have 11 exam rooms, up from six, plus a separate entrance for ambulances.
Mr. Winthrop said the hospital is adding five housekeeping employees to its staff of 405 people "because of the extra square footage" of the new center.
The new hospital has a more efficient layout, with related services next to each other on
the same floor. That hasn't always been the case at the old Bellevue Hospital, Mr. Barth said.
"In the old facility, a patient would be wheeled out of surgery on the first floor, in full view of the public, and taken in an elevator to his room," he said. "Now all transportation will take place in private."
Hospital officials and employees seemed proudest of the building's design, a "prairie style" with obvious influences from famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The new hospital's focal point is an atrium over the main lobby, with a large, vaulted skylight illuminating the circular area's warm palette of earth tones and Shaker-style sofas and tables.
"We're all so very excited to move to a new home," Ms. Phenicie said. "We cannot wait. It's hard to believe it's here."
The board of Bellevue Hospital, an independently owned not-for-profit, began studying whether to expand its facility or replace it in June, 2000. The board voted in March, 2002, for a new hospital, citing the age of the old center and the lack of space for further expansion.
Construction on the 109-acre site began in June, 2003, at U.S. 20 and York Township Road 302.
The hospital funded the project in part with $15 million in investment equity from Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky and Norwalk Area Medical Systems, Inc. Each of those companies will hold two seats on the hospital's board.
Bellevue Hospital raised more than $2.3 million to offset some of the project costs, and bonds issued by Fifth Third Bank covered the rest.
The public will be able to tour the new medical facility during an open house from 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday. Mr. Winthrop said hospital officials expect up to 5,000 visitors.
Contact Steve Murphy at:
smurphy@theblade.com
or 419-724-6078.
First Published February 24, 2005, 12:51 p.m.
