Columbus-based OhioHealth has allocated $60 million to launch a network of freestanding emergency departments, slated to open in 2018, reports The Columbus Dispatch.
The health system will build freestanding EDs across central Ohio in Hilliard, Obetz and Grove City. The facility planned for Grove City will include a 26-bed surgical inpatient hospital and cost about $46.5 million, according the article.
Steve Markovich, OhioHealth's senior vice president of central Ohio operations, told The Columbus Dispatch that the project is not part of a "growth strategy," but rather aims to redistribute healthcare services to patients in their own communities.
OhioHealth's decision to establish an emergency care network is part of an established trend in local and national healthcare markets. From 2005 to 2014, the number of hospitals operating freestanding EDs in the U.S. more than doubled, from 146 to 300, according to The Columbus Dispatch, which cited information from the American Hospital Association.