In-depth coverage
The Springfield News-Sun provides unmatched covering of health care and its affect on the economy in Clark and Champaign counties, including recent stories about new funding at Rocking Horse Medical Center and county health rankings.
By the numbers:
$8.3 million — Cost of new Memorial Medical Group outpatient facility
23,000 square feet — Size of Memorial Medical facility
5,717 — Champaign County residents Memorial Medical Group served in 2014
12 — New jobs to be created
A Marysville medical group plans to build a new $8 million medical office in Urbana, increasing the organization’s footprint in Champaign County.
The medical office building would be at least the third significant investment in facilities in Champaign County in the past year. Mary Rutan Hospital, based in Bellefontaine, also opened a new medical clinic in Urbana this past spring after its leaders saw a spike in demand from Champaign County residents at the Logan County facility.
And Community Mercy Health Partners completed a $235,000 renovation to add a new Chronic Care Clinic in a previously vacant wing at Mercy Memorial Hospital in Urbana. CMHP also operates Springfield Regional Medical Center.
Several factors could be driving the investment in Champaign County, said Bryan Bucklew, president and CEO of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association. That could include an aging population that needs more services and a national trend in which physicians are increasingly becoming aligned with hospital networks.
“Utilization has continued to go up as people seek more and more medical care and they’re living longer, so there’s some population issues associated with this that probably has an impact,” Bucklew said.
Memorial Health of Marysville already has a presence in Urbana but is seeking to add physicians and expand its services in the area with the new facility, according to information from the company.
The 23,000-square-foot facility would be similar to the company’s existing Memorial City Gate Medical Center, which opened in Marysville in 2014.
The company has seen an increase in patients from Champaign County at its Marysville facilities, Memorial Health CEO and President Chip Hubbs said. Memorial Health is still developing its plan, he said, and a final location and opening date haven’t yet been determined.
Memorial Medical Group provided care for about 5,700 patients from Champaign County in 2014, Hubbs said, for a total of more than 13,100 visits. About 12 percent of patients admitted to the Marysville hospital were from Champaign County, and the organization also provides sports medicine services to the Mechanicsburg Exempted Village School District. The new facility would create 12 new permanent jobs and retain 17 current jobs in Urbana.
The facility would provide space for primary care physicians, but Hubbs said Memorial Health also believes there’s a shortage of specialists available in Champaign County. The office could potentially house some specialists as well, along with providing occupational and speech therapy as well as sports medicine.
Other health organizations have also increased their footprint in Urbana. Mary Rutan opened a health clinic at 848 Scioto St. in May to offer flu shots, immunizations, general medical evaluations and annual wellness and gynecology exams, among other services.
Mary Rutan leaders also cited a spike in demand from Champaign County patients at their Logan County facilities when opening the clinic.
“For years we have seen strong market share for both inpatient and outpatient services from the Champaign County area,” said Laura Miller, a spokeswoman fort Mary Rutan. “In 2015, we made a commitment to improve patient convenience for the members of that community and the Mary Rutan Hospital Urbana Clinic was the first step in that plan.”
Patient volumes have exceeded expectations, Miller said, and the hospital system is planning to offer more services and providers in 2016, although she declined to provide more details.
Memorial Health doesn’t want to encroach on a competitor’s territory, Hubbs said. But many residents in places like Cable and Woodstock already associate themselves more with Marysville, he said, so the new office will allow more access to service.
“We just feel Urbana is an attractive community that’s already supporting us to a large degree and that’s under-served medically,” Hubbs said.
Community Mercy Health Partners has worked closely with community members to make sure residents have access to the medical care and services they need, CMHP President Paul Hiltz said.
Earlier this fall, CMHP hosted a health summit in Champaign County that brought together leaders from government and health care in the region. That group prioritized a handful of issues to be addressed, including problems associated with drug addiction and too few resources for mental health.
Community Mercy has also continued to expand its services in Champaign County, including adding a Chronic Care Clinic at Mercy Memorial. That clinic has been successfu, averaging about 80 patients a week. That model will be replicated in Springfield in a partnership with the Rocking Horse Center this coming spring.
It’s not clear why other health systems are increasingly focusing on providing care in Champaign County, Hiltz said. CMHP has worked to increase access to specialists, he said, and is working to recruit more primary care physicians in the county.
“We’re constantly reviewing data to try to respond to what the health needs are,” Hiltz said.
Nancy Delaney of Urbana was a patient at Mercy Memorial’s Chronic Care Clinic on Friday. She’s glad more options are open close to her home. Previously she’s traveled to Springfield, Troy and Dayton for health care.
“A lot of small communities need places like this so they don’t have to go to the bigger cities,” she said. “We need it here.”
About the Author