Summa Health to Construct 60-Bed Inpatient and Outpatient Behavioral Health Facility on the Akron Campus

Date: 10/02/2019

New Building Highlights Phase 2 of Master Facility Plan; Allows for Multi-Year Transition of All Services from the Summa Health System – St. Thomas Campus to the Summa Health System – Akron Campus

AKRON, Ohio, Oct. 2, 2019 – Summa Health today announced plans for the construction of a 60-bed inpatient and outpatient behavioral health facility on its Akron Campus. The new building, part of Phase 2 of the Summa Health Master Facility Plan, represents an investment of approximately $60 million and will create an integrated, state-of-the-art space that allows for a partial hospitalization program and enhanced integration with intensive outpatient services, including psychiatry, addiction medicine and traumatic stress.

In addition to providing an integrated space for both inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, the new facility will enable Summa to move the detox program to an acute medical setting, while also preserving and honoring the heritage of both Ignatia Hall and Alcoholics Anonymous. Groundbreaking on the new building is expected to take place in summer 2020, with completion scheduled for 2022.

“The beginning of Phase 2 of our facility plan not only represents an important next step in how we care for our community as a whole, but also underscores the importance we place on the treatment of those in need of behavioral health services,” said Dr. David Custodio, president of the Summa Health System – Akron and St. Thomas Campuses. “Coupled with the recent opening of our new patient tower and the many improvements we’ve made on the Barberton Campus and across the system, we are well positioned to care for our patients for many years to come.”

Other key components of Phase 2 of the facility plan include beginning the process of renovating units in the previous patient tower on the Akron Campus to achieve a higher private bed ratio, significant unit renovations to allow for the transition of all services currently provided at the St. Thomas Campus to the Akron Campus and demolition of the School of Nursing on the Akron Campus.

Additional details will be provided in the coming weeks and months, but it is anticipated that the transition of services from the St. Thomas Campus to the Akron Campus will take place over several months, with an anticipated completion date sometime in 2022. No decisions have been made about the future of the St. Thomas Campus; however, Summa Health will vacate the facility at the end of Phase 2 of the Master Facility Plan.

The Summa Health Master Facility Plan, announced in April 2016, represents an investment of approximately $360 million in the community. It includes:

• Opening a new 343,000 square-foot patient tower on the Akron Campus housing new facilities for Summa’s Women’s Health program, modern inpatient rooms and nursing units and expanded surgical capacity.
• Increasing the number of private rooms to approximately 80 percent of beds on the Akron Campus.
• Providing increased outpatient capacity across the system, with the ability to design around patient-centered care.
• Modernizing various portions of the Summa Health System – Barberton Campus and aligning services there to improve access to efficient ambulatory care to better meet the overall needs of the community. These improvements include a new imaging and diagnostic center and enhancements to surgical services.

About Summa Health

Summa Health is one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in Ohio. Encompassing a network of hospitals, community health centers, a health plan, a physician-hospital organization, a multi-specialty physician organization, research and the Summa Health Foundation, we are nationally renowned for excellence in patient care and for exceptional approaches to healthcare delivery. Summa’s clinical services are consistently recognized by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (Magnet status), U.S. News and World Report, Thomson Reuters and The Leapfrog Group. For more information, visit summahealth.org or find us on Facebook at facebook.com/summahealth and Twitter, twitter.com/summahealth.

Media Contact: Mike Bernstein
Phone: 234.312.5012