Dayton Children’s considering new five-story building

Dayton Children’s Hospital is considering building a new five-story outpatient center at its main campus and could start work later this year on a new employee parking garage.

The pediatric hospital in the Old North Dayton Historic District is seeking approval from city’s Plan Board, though cautioned that it hasn’t made a final decision on whether or not to build the outpatient center.

“Dayton Children’s is actively planning for the swiftly evolving landscape of pediatric health care,” the hospital said in a statement. “Discussions are continuously ongoing regarding the needs of our patients, families and staff, and what services our kids will need to stay healthy into the future.”

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The outpatient center is proposed next to the visitor garage along Valley Street.

Dayton Children’s stated “at this time we are still exploring options on how to best serve our patients and no specific plans have been approved by the board of trustees.”

Dayton Children’s is planning to build a 600-space, four-story employee parking garage on the southwest portion of the main campus, bordered by the hospital, Grant Street and Ohio 4. The project is expected to start in fall 2018 and be complete in summer 2019.

Dayton Children’s Hospital has around 3,000 employees up from five years ago when it employed close to 2,000.

“In the past five years, Dayton Children’s has grown tremendously and increased its staff by approximately 50 percent,” the hospital said in a statement. “This employee parking garage will add enough spaces to accommodate that growth and provide ample room for any future staff expansion necessary.”

The proposal also calls for expanding the parking lot on the opposite side of Grant Street. The documents show the expanded parking lot would be built where two houses now stand, which are owned by Dayton Children’s.

The Dayton Daily News reported the hospital bought the Grant Street houses for a combined $240,000 in a sale recorded Oct. 4. Hospital officials at the time said there were no immediate plans for the properties.

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The documents submitted to the city have a preliminary outline for even more construction at the main campus.

The early outline shows there could be a new building constructed as a third phase on the east side of the new patient tower and as well as a fourth phase building on the west side of the tower between the main building and the planned employee garage.

Phase 3 and phase 4 buildings are part of the 2013 general development plan previously approved by the city – not new elements. They would be replacements as our current structures age out of clinical usefulness. No timeline has been set nor any plans approved for their construction.

Dayton Children’s is also building a health center at the corner of Stanley Avenue and Valley Street. The building will be called the Center for Community Health and Advocacy and will house community health programs like the hospital’s Dayton Asthma Alliance, the Center for Child Health and Wellness and the advocacy efforts to stop child abuse through CARE House.

Within the last year the Dayton Children’s also finished construction of a main campus patient tower, is planning to open an urgent care center in Huber Heights this winter, announced it would open an inpatient mental health unit at the main campus, and started work on an outpatient center in Troy.

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Dayton Children’s is not the only hospital system expanding its reach with new services and facilities.

Kettering Heatlh Network is building a new patient tower at Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek as well as a new hospital in Troy. The network also announced it would develop a $10 million central command center and is close to opening a Centerville medical center geared toward older adults.

Premier Health is close to opening newly built physician hubs in Monroe and Liberty Twp. and plans to construction medical centers in Vandalia and Beavercreek. The network is also seeking approval to start work on a rehab hospital on Miami Valley’s campus, is opening a series of urgent care centers and and just cut the ribbon on a Miami Twp. freestanding ER.

Cincinnati-based Mercy Health is also working its way toward Dayton with plans for a freestanding ER in Enon with its eye toward eventual expansion into other medical services on site.

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