Published: Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Forum to move services from Tod to Northside
Dr. Ghezzi said costs, equipment and an inefficient floor plan led to the move.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
YOUNGSTOWN — Inpatient services at Tod Children's Hospital are being moved from their current building into a refurbished area of Forum Health Northside Medical Center.
In addition, outpatient services are being moved from the basement of the old Tod building to a modern facility just down the road at 510 Gypsy Lane, which is called the Tod Children's Health Center.
The moves, part of Forum's financial turnaround effort, will occur in September.
In written statements Wednesday announcing the reconfiguration, Dr. Keith T. Ghezzi, Forum Health's interim president and chief executive officer, said the move is necessary because the Tod building has "more shortcomings than assets as a specialty children's hospital."
The facility is saddled with high maintenance and operating costs, aging equipment and an inefficient floor plan. The hospital's main entrance is not wheelchair accessible, and elevator service is irregular and unreliable. Patients are doubled up, and getting patients from their rooms for therapy, X-rays or other special procedures requires going to another building, Dr. Ghezzi said.
Nothing is outdated about the superior patient care and exceptional commitment of the physicians and staff at Tod, Dr. Ghezzi said.
But he said even Tod's fine reputation cannot overcome current market forces, such as a shrinking pediatric population, that have led to a patient census too low to support rising costs. By concentrating in-patient care in one area, Tod will realize much needed cost savings, he said.
Competition
Also, Dr. Ghezzi said, Humility of Mary Health Partners' affiliation with Akron Children's Hospital, and its plans for a modern, state-of-the-art pediatric unit at its new hospital in Boardman, will mean local head-to-head competition for the same patients.
The choice, Dr. Ghezzi said, was close Tod's or "breathe new life" into the hospital by taking a different direction.
Dr. Ghezzi did not address in his statement whether the Tod building will remain vacant or if it will be put to another use by the hospital system.
Neither does Forum say how much money will be saved by the move and how it will affect the staff.
He said the new Tod will have private rooms with room for patients and their parents, private bathrooms, and easy access to all the hospital's facilities, including the emergency department, surgical suites, procedural areas, and the pharmacy, labs and radiology.
The new configuration provides physicians-in-training a more comprehensive residency experience.
Also, Dr. Ghezzi said, Tod will maintain its relationship with Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, which he said affords local access to pediatric specialists and primary care physicians.
Dr. Ghezzi talked about the Tod move in a memo to Forum Health employees and in the hospital system's weekly newsletter, Forum Flash.
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