Akron General Health System is continuing to boost its presence in the competitive community of Green with new services in a recently opened Green Medical Office Pavilion.
The three-story, 40,000-square-foot facility is connected to the Akron General Health & Wellness Center-Green, which opened in 2012. The center includes a satellite emergency department, the LifeStyles medically supervised fitness center and diagnostic services.
Summa Health System, Akron General’s cross-town rival, also operates a satellite ER nearby in Green.
Five practices moved into Akron General’s new medical office building in late fall, with several others expected to take occupancy this summer, said Steve Abdenour, senior vice president of system operations for Akron General Health System.
By bringing primary-care and specialist practices to the center, Akron General is trying to put as many services as possible under one roof, he said.
“It makes it much more convenient for the patients,” he said.
The practices in the building include Endocrine Associates, Green Primary Care, Akron General Center for Urologic Health, Akron General Center for Behavioral Medicine and Wellness and Akron General Orthopedics.
“We now have the occupancy of the building to 57 percent,” Abdenour said. “With these five offices, we have about 63 employees in here now.”
The second wave of tenants will include obstetrical/gynecological services, specialty wound care and an office where various Akron General specialists will take turns seeing patients once or twice a week.
When the space is fully occupied, likely by the end of the year, about 100 employees are expected to work there, Abdenour said. Together with the Health & Wellness Center, the employment total is expected to reach 230.
Akron General is leasing the $7 million medical office building from Carter Validus, a real estate investment firm based in Chicago, Abdenour said.
The health system is marking the opening of the new facility with a community open house from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 25.
The event will feature a meet-and-greet with physicians and staff, gifts, prizes and baby-sitting.
The facility is at 1946 Town Park Blvd.
For more information, go to www.akrongeneral.org/hwcenters.
Medicaid bonus
The state of Ohio recently was awarded a performance bonus of $10.8 million from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for enrolling eligible children in Medicaid.
Ohio was one of 23 states that received bonuses that totaled more than $307 million.
The performance payments were included in the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act of 2009. The bonuses, which are tied to increasing children’s Medicaid enrollment over a specified target for each state, were created to help offset the cost of insuring the lowest income children.
The uninsured rates for children nationwide dropped from 8.6 percent in 2009 to 7.5 percent in 2011, according to recent Census data. About 87.2 percent of eligible children nationwide were enrolled in the state-federal health insurance program in 2011, compared to 81.7 percent two years earlier
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.