Summa Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital is undergoing a rebirth.
After cutbacks in recent years that included the end of its labor and delivery unit, the community hospital in Medina County is poised for growth and expansion in targeted areas.
Leadership from Wadsworth-Rittman and its owner, Summa Health System, recently completed an intensive review and comprehensive plan for the future of the 113-bed hospital.
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The plans include capital projects of at least $8 million beginning this year, including a $2 million new eight-bed intensive-care unit on the hospital’s second floor.
When it opens in November, the new ICU will be double the size of the current unit.
Later this year, the hospital will start another $2 million construction project to create three additional operating rooms in the former ICU, increasing the total ORs in the hospital to seven.
The new ORs are scheduled to open in the spring.
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In addition, the hospital recently received approval from the Wadsworth Planning Commission to expand the emergency department by more than 6,000 square feet.
The project will add eight beds to the ER, bringing the total to 20. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin this fall.
”It’s part of our overall growth strategy,” said Tom DeBord, interim president for Summa’s Barberton and Wadsworth-Rittman hospitals.
DeBord, chief operating officer for both hospitals, recently assumed the interim position after Jim Pope accepted a job as president and chief executive of Franciscan Health System, based in the Toledo suburb of Sylvania.
The health system has created a committee to find Pope’s permanent replacement.
The capital projects in Wadsworth are part of a commitment Summa made when it acquired the community hospital in 2008.
The hospital opted to became part of Summa Health System after struggling on its own in an increasingly competitive market.
For Summa, the move marked the health system’s first major presence in Medina County, one of the fastest growing regions in the state.
The health system also is finishing construction of an outpatient medical and surgery center on state Route 18 in Montville and Medina townships that is scheduled to open in November. The project will include a satellite emergency department, which is expected to open sometime next year.
The outpatient medical facility is about a mile away from Medina Hospital, which is affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic.
”For us, it’s a key strategic area of growth,” Summa President and Chief Executive Thomas J. Strauss said.
Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital is considered part of Summa’s southwest region, along with Summa Barberton Hospital, which was acquired by the health system in 2007.
The health system also includes Akron City and St. Thomas hospitals in Akron, partial ownership of Western Reserve Hospital in Cuyahoga Falls and an affiliation with Robinson Memorial Hospital in
Ravenna.
Wadsworth-Rittman continues to lose money, posting an operating loss of about $5.6 million last year, according to hospital officials.
However, Strauss said, the regional operations are profitable and the two Summa hospitals are maintaining their market share.
”We look at the combined finances,” he said.
Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital averages about 30 inpatients per day, but the majority of its business is done on an outpatient basis.
The hospital has about 500 employees — a decrease of roughly 60 in the past year, partially because of the closure of the money-losing labor and delivery unit.
As part of Summa’s growth plans for Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital, the health system has placed 18 employed physicians in offices within Medina County within the last couple years, Strauss said.
In addition, DeBord said, the hospital has added neurologists and an infectious disease doctor to the staff — two specialties that previously often required patients to transfer to other hospitals.
The hospital also is looking to expand its staffing and programs in cardiology, orthopedics, senior services and primary care, DeBord said.
Hospital officials are working with heart doctors in the area to create a ”cardiac center of excellence” on the Wadsworth-Rittman campus that will include physician offices and non-invasive diagnostic tests, such as stress tests and echocardiograms, DeBord said. More invasive tests and procedures will continue to be referred to Akron City and Barberton hospitals.
A similar ”visioning” process for the future of Barberton Hospital now is under way, DeBord said.
Cheryl Powell is a health reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal, the daily newspaper in Akron and a syndication partner of MedCity News.
