Calling it a project Greenfield area residents need and deserve, Adena Health System officials broke ground Thursday on a new 8,500-square-foot Medical Office Building at the Adena Greenfield Medical Center (AGMC) that will allow for future growth in providers and services for patients in Highland County and surrounding areas.
The $3 million project will be attached to AGMC, marking the first expansion to the hospital building itself in the last 30 years. It offers several benefits, including new technology and equipment, spacious exam rooms, improved access to sub-specialty services, enhanced patient privacy and convenience, additional patient parking, a more efficient layout that decreases patient wait times, a pharmacy, and the type of flexibility inside the hospital that will allow for future growth in providers and services.
A new mobile pad for imaging services is already in place.
The new space and technology will enhance existing services in cardiology, general surgery, neurology, OB/GYN, pain management, podiatry, sports medicine, urology and wound care. They also will allow the health system to explore adding new services in the future in areas such as ear, nose and throat; gastroenterology; pulmonology; psych services and others.
“We plan to open this up in the summer of 2022,” said Josh McCoy, AGMC senior operations executive officer and vice president for Adena’s Western Region. “I’ve had the opportunity to talk with a lot of our providers and caregivers in the last couple weeks and you can see the excitement in their faces.”
McCoy said the project, once completed, will increase patient access dramatically, with the ability to handle three times the current number of visits.
Several of the presenters at Thursday’s ceremony noted the special role Greenfield’s hospital has played in the health system’s growth and its ever-increasing ability to provide specialty care close to home in the nine counties it serves.
“Greenfield became the very first hospital to join us in that journey,” said Adena President and CEO Jeff Graham. “It was Greenfield, along with Adena Regional Medical Center, that really brought the culture together and the strategy together and then executing what it means to not have people travel for care, as well as the importance of these hospitals in our communities.”
Adena now serves more than 400,000 people across nine counties with four hospitals and six ambulatory care centers. Graham said Greenfield’s new Medical Office Building will provide yet another tool in making sure patients and their families in Highland County will not have to travel for the specialty care they need and deserve.
Adena’s investment in the project will not only create and support the jobs needed to construct the new facility, but the expected growth in patient visits will generate increased commerce opportunities for the community and support additional job creation tied to clinical program growth and development.
The health system’s critical access hospitals in Greenfield, Washington C.H. and Waverly have played crucial roles in Adena’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, helping handle larger-than-normal patient volumes to ensure the health system could safely care for Covid positive patients and maintain the ability to continue offering its extensive array of essential, non-pandemic related services.
“That is why I am so excited to see facilities like this growing and getting the added resources they need to continue meeting all those local care needs,” said Adena Chief Operating Officer Kathi Edrington.
Dr. Richard Mizer, a longtime Greenfield physician who serves as chief of staff at AGMC and physician executive vice president of Adena Medical Group, said the expansion project reaffirms Adena’s commitment to expanding specialty health services in Highland County as the county continues to grow.
“Next year, we’ll have a brand new, bigger space with bigger efficiencies,” Mizer said. “It’s going to make it easier to recruit doctors into the facility. The staff that works here deserves that space and a better facility to work in and, most important of all, the community and patients — many of whom have come here for years and years — deserve that as well.”
As with any large project, several entities come together to make it happen, and this is no exception. AGMC Board Chair Ron Coffey recognized the numerous donors who have contributed to an Adena Health Foundation fundraising drive in support of the project, as well as the Community Foundation Council, AGMC Employee Committee, Adena leadership team, the village of Greenfield, community and business partners, and the providers and caregivers at AGMC.
“When this project was discussed by the board, we immediately knew it was the right thing to do because we had kind of outgrown our facility somewhat,” Coffey said. “We want to meet the health care needs of the people of Greenfield and the surrounding area because we do have growing demands here, and they deserve the best health care available.”
Those interested in contributing to the project can find more information and a donation button online through the Adena Health Foundation.
Jason Gilham is the communications manager for the Adena Health System.
