010526...R MERCY ADDITION 1...Youngstown...01-05-26...Kathleen Harley, President of St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, left, welcomes everyone to the opening of the new Neurointensive Care Unit at St. E's Hospital Monday afternoon...On right is James Armour V. P. Mission Bon Secours ...by R. Michael Semple

YOUNGSTOWN — St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital officials unveiled a $20 million investment in regional health care with the opening of a 16-bed neurointensive care unit on Monday.

“We’ve always had wonderful neurological and neurosurgical care here in the Mahoning Valley, here at St Elizabeth Youngstown and Mercy Health,” said Dr. James Kravec, chief clinical officer, Mercy Health, Lorain and Youngstown. “This allows us to grow that.”

A blessing ceremony welcomed patients, staff and the public to the fifth floor of the newest Mercy Health addition.

The site formerly housed St. Elizabeth’s 26-bed rehabilitation unit. With the construction and opening of Mercy Health Rehabilitation Hospital on Belmont Avenue in Liberty, the vacated floor was turned over to construction crews in January 2025.

“(We) went all the way down to the ceiling beams, the structural beams and the concrete floor,” said Kathleen Harley, hospital president. “Stripped everything and then built it back up from there, meeting all the size and the needs of codes. And that took us to 16 beds.”

Previously, four neurointensive care beds were located on another unit, Harley said.

“We knew that wasn’t enough,” she said. “Then other patients went to other overflow areas. So we already knew what we needed, and we knew we needed a minimum of 16 beds.”

Think of an extensive remodeling project.

“It’s a lot of work to demo an entire unit,” Harley said. “All the while, right off that elevator we’re taking care of patients going this direction, this direction, up and down. So, I do thank the construction team that was here, because they were very good, very clean, very quiet wherever they could be.”

Kravec said the physicians and staff on the new unit will handle myriad patient cases.

“Those who just had a stroke, those who had brain surgery, those who had aneurysms, spine surgery, with other comorbidities, other medical illnesses,” he said.

“And those continue to grow, and we find them in our community and in an older population, but even in some of the younger folks. And so the goal is to take care of those patients with the best doctors, nurses, staff, facilities we have.”

As of Monday’s ceremony, six patients had been placed in the unit, Harley said. A unit nurse will be assigned to one to two patients, depending on the person’s condition.

The unit also features headwalls and workstations planned with staff input, along with a dedicated family space.

The care is exceptionally focused.

“It’s the complexity of the patients they’re caring for,” Harley said. “It’s the instrumentation, it’s the advanced technology. It is the neuro physicians that are on board. … So it’s multidisciplinary, but everybody is very strong with the neuro background.”

Later this month, Mercy Health will open its behavioral hospital next to its rehabilitation facility. That move will open St. Elizabeth’s seventh floor.

“We have not determined what we will or won’t do with that,” Harley said. “It may become part of our graduate medical education … because as we continue to grow our residency programs to train our doctors and educate them and bring them to the next level, we need more space for that.

“So every time we make one move, there’s another move, but we’re always thinking ahead before we make those moves. It has to be very strategic decisions.”

With an average of 280 to 320 patients daily, Harley is quick to call St. Elizabeth’s a busy hospital.

“We do a very vast and complex patient care acuity here.”