FLORENCE – The Christ Hospital Health Network’s plans for redevelopment of the Drawbridge Inn site in Ft. Mitchell include an outpatient surgery center.
The surgery center will part of a mixed-use development featuring a 75,000 square-foot medical building at the intersection of Buttermilk Pike and Interstate 75, according to Vic DiPilla, vice president and chief business development officer.
In addition to primary and specialty care, Christ plans to offer outpatient services, including an emergency department, at the site, he said.
“The network was created to enable people to get care near the neighborhoods where they live,” DiPilla said. The goal is “to deliver health care at the most convenient location at the most affordable cost.”
DiPilla outlined The Christ Hospital Health Network’s expansion plans for Northern Kentucky at a meeting of the Florence Rotary Club on Monday, March 21. The network, formed in 2012, now offers health services at more than 100 locations around Greater Cincinnati.
More than 1,000 physicians practice at The Christ Hospital Health Network facilities, 225 of which are employees of the network, according to DiPilla. A new Joint and Spine Center opened at the hospital’s main campus in Mt. Auburn.
The Drawbridge Inn site will be The Christ Hospital Health Networks’ second major development in Northern Kentucky. The Christ Hospital Outpatient Center just off Interstate 75 in Ft. Wright opened in late 2014.
The center offers primary care; cardiovascular care; diabetes and endocrinology; a foot and ankle clinic; gynecology; orthopaedics and sports medicine; urology; urogynecology and pelvic floor medicine; wound healing; pre-surgery testing and imaging.
“Patients are excited about that location,” DiPilla said. Northern Kentucky patient visits to network facilities are up 35 percent since its opening, he noted.
DiPilla expects The Christ Hospital Health Network to expand health services at additional Northern Kentucky locations in the future. Christ also hopes to provide access to research trials closer to people’s homes in the area.
Convenient locations and affordable costs are among the keys to patient satisfaction, DiPilla said.
“People judge an institution on their patient experience,” he said. “That’s a priority for us.”
