BEACHWOOD, Ohio — University Hospitals has announced development plans for its UH Ahuja Medical Center with plans to break ground on a $200 million Phase 2 building project this fall.
Phase 2 will add a second, five-floor hospital tower and a two-floor sports medicine complex at 64,000 sq. ft. to the southwest side of the existing buildings.
Here's what you can expect:
- New labor and delivery and other mother and baby services.
- New neonatal intensive care unit (Level 2), increasing capacity to provide UH Rainbow NICU care and extending services to the east side.
- New, expanded emergency room growing from 22 beds to 30 beds.
- Women's health and comprehensive breast health center, adding to services currently at the nearby UH Minoff Health Center at Chagrin Highlands.
- Expanded radiology to meet demands of emergency room, Harrington Heart and Vascular Institute and sports medicine.
- The largest sports medicine complex in Northeast Ohio, with a performance center, outpatient rehabilitation space, 18 exam rooms and two diagnostic radiology units, with convenient access to MRI capabilities and adjacent to operating rooms.
- New ambulatory surgical center with eight new operating rooms and 32 universal pre- and post-op beds.
- Expanded ambulatory services. UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute will add 10 new exam rooms. Currently Harrington clinic rooms are running near capacity.
- Expanded observation unit (all private beds), serving a growing number of patients who can be treated and released the same day.
- New short stay unit (less than 24 hours) dedicated to patients who need less than 24 hours of care in the ambulatory surgical center.
UH Ahuja Medical Center was originally envisioned as having a multi-stage evolution in providing services for the community. Phase 1, opened in 2011, produced the current 144-bed hospital, 22-bed emergency department, and 60,000-square-foot outpatient medical building visible from I-271 near Harvard Road.
Construction of Ahuja Phase 2 follows the 2018 opening of the UH Rainbow Center for Women & Children. The $40 million UH Rainbow Center provides a continuum of mother-child care close to home for residents of Cleveland’s Midtown community.
When complete, Phase 2 will add approximately 1,000 new jobs (full- and part-time) to the medical center campus.:
“University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center is a tremendous resource for the health and wellness of people in this region,” Beachwood Mayor Martin S. Horwitz said in a statement issued Monday afternoon. “We are thrilled by their Phase Two expansion announcement and the economic boost that will come from the expected 1,000 new jobs created in the Chagrin Highlands area. The City of Beachwood administration commits to providing every assistance to move this project ahead in a safe and timely manner, as we did with the initial construction of Ahuja Medical Center.”
With an environmentally-sustainable design, the medical center will feature eco-friendly materials and processes to minimize energy costs and reduce the impact on the environment. For example, the parking lots surrounding the UH Ahuja Medical Center feature a green technology called bioswales, which are landscape elements designed to collect, filter, and redistribute surface runoff water.
UH Ahuja Medical Center is named in honor of former UH Board Chair Monte Ahuja, his wife, Usha, and their family, who donated $30 million to UH in support of the Vision 2010 campaign.
The original construction of UH Ahuja Medical Center, which was a $244 million project, was a key component of UH’s $1.2 billion Vision 2010 strategic plan that also included UH Seidman Cancer Center, UH Cleveland Medical Center’s Center for Emergency Medicine, and a new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.