COLUMBUS − Nationwide Children’s Hospital is expanding once again, this time into Zanesville with a Close to Home Center at 740 Adair Ave., according to Shaun Coffman, the site director who’s been with Children’s Hospital for 12 years.
The remodel of the building on Adair is in progress with the center’s opening expected by the end of August for care to ages birth through 21.
“We’re building on our history and presence in Zanesville,” said Coffman of why Nationwide Children’s selected the Muskingum County market for this expansion. “We have outpatient lab services and specialty services there already as well as a hospitalist program through Genesis HealthCare System.”
The hospitalist program at Genesis allows for Nationwide Children’s pediatric specialists to be there 24-7, said Coffman, and helps with services in the pediatric unit, newborn unit, special care unit, emergency department consults, and consults on high-risk pregnancies.
“If a child is there and ready to discharge, the hospitalist can communicate with the patient’s regular doctor to coordinate discharge instructions,” said Coffman. “They also help provide education for staff there at the hospital.”
Providers can also call the hospitalists for advice on patients and specialty cases at any time.
“We have a great program there,” he said.
The Close to Home Center is not an urgent care facility and does not offer emergency services. Instead, the center is for care after a patent has seen a regular doctor and needs to be seen by a specialist.
In that case, if your doctor orders a lab or EKG service, a patient can walk in anytime, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, to receive those services. All other care is by appointment and referral only.
“We will offer pediatric cardiology, an adult congenital heart disease team, genetics, hematology/oncology, and urology,” said Coffman. “Those are the services we’ll offer initially.”
He said they’ll add more services later if necessary.
They are currently interviewing for registration staff, but otherwise the center will be staffed with current employees.
“We’re sending specialists from Columbus there and the current lab services we offer will move this new building,” he said. For anyone interested in applying for future jobs should head to the Nationwide Children’s Hospital website and go to the career section.
In addition to local jobs, the benefits of having a Close to Home Center are too many to count.
“The biggest thing is access to high-quality care,” said Coffman. “Nationwide Children’s is a nationally ranked pediatric specialty care facility and some people might not have gas money or time to drive to Columbus for that kind of care. We happen to think that all children and families deserve access to that. And this center is bringing it all under one roof to get that care to them here in Zanesville.”
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Nationwide Children’s plans to open Close to Home Center on Adair Avenue by late August
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