The 23,000-square-foot expansion adds to Soin’s current 174 beds.
It also follows the closure of the surgery center and ICU at Kettering Health’s other hospital in the county, Greene Memorial Hospital. The ICU closed in February 2020 after the doctor that covered the unit left, and the surgery center closed in March 2020.
Patients who need intensive care unit care can’t stay at the Xenia hospital and are taken to Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek, which Kettering Health has regularly expanded since it opened in 2012.
“Kettering Health is seeing an overall increase in patients across our region,” Kettering Health said in a statement. “These medical and surgical rooms are needed to meet that need.”
Greene Memorial Hospital is supported with two Greene County levies that bring in about $3.5 million a year in tax dollars.
Last year county officials expressed concern that removing the ICU and the surgery center from Greene Memorial would not hold up to language in the levies.
After this week’s news, County Commissioner Tom Koogler noted Kettering Health has already been expanding Soin Medical Center. He said he didn’t have any thoughts about the new expansion.
Greene County Administrator Brandon Huddleson said Thursday one of the levies, worth a half mill, will likely expire at the end of this year as Kettering Health has not approached the county about renewing it. To have it be renewed, ballot measures would have to be certified by the Board of Elections by early August and commissioners would have to take action before it is certified.
The second levy expires at the end of 2023 unless it is renewed.
Commissioners passed a resolution in June 2020 demanding Kettering Health Network, which owns the hospital, reinstate services it had discontinued at the hospital. Those services were not reinstated. County officials then considered stopping the collection of taxes for two Greene Memorial Hospital levies. However, they opted to watch what Kettering Health does next with Greene Memorial.
Kettering Health acquired Greene Memorial in 2008.
Over the years, it closed several medical service lines. In 2009, the hospital stopped offering maternity services. In 2012, inpatient psychiatric and rehabilitation services shut down. Greene Memorial Hospital did not renew its Level 3 Trauma designation in 2019.
Beavercreek, with a fast growing and well-insured population, has attracted multiple health care projects in recent years to meet the demand. This includes not only several Soin expansions, which is a Level 3 Trauma Center, but also senior living homes, and a future Premier Health freestanding emergency department next to a Premier medical building.
Kettering Health has also previously highlighted other Greene County commitments, such as its Jamestown medical center, its partnership with the REACH Center.
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