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St. E's Emergency Facility to Open in Austintown
By Dan O'BrienAUSTINTOWN, Ohio -- Come Monday, residents living in western Mahoning County and southwest Trumbull County will have 24-hour emergency care service nearby, thanks to the completion of Humility of Mary Health Partners' new St. Elizabeth Emergency and Diagnostic Center.Officials snipped the ribbon this morning to officially welcome the Nov. 1 opening of the $1.8 million facility -- a full-service emergency room that's capable of accommodating ambulance service, said Bob Shroder, president and chief executive officer of Humility of Mary Health Partners. The nine bed facility is able to handle all types of emergency situations, including specialties such as pediatrics, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynacology, critical care and eye, ear, nose and throat. "We're able to treat some trauma, but it's not a Level I trauma center," such as the St. Elizabeth main campus in Youngstown, Shroder noted.Laboratory and general radiology services such as CT scans are also available while ultrasound and MRI equipment are planned for sometime next year. "Right now, about 80% of a patient's diagnostic needs can be met here," Shroder said. Some11,000 patients are expected to use the facility during its first 12 months of operation. "That's probably a conservative estimate," Shroder said.The new emergency and diagnostic center will be staffed with 26 full-time employees, some of whom will be transferred from other operations in the HM system, including St. Joseph's Medical Center in Warren and St. Elizabeth's Youngstown facility. "The others are new to our system," Shroder said.HM decided to build the new center in Austintown because it was the second fastest growth area in the Mahoning Valley, said Genie Aubel, HM's chief operating officer. "We were very eager to get out and serve this population," she noted.So eager, in fact, that Shroder reported only eight months lapsed from when HM purchased the four-acre parcel along Mahoning Avenue to final construction. "We didn't even have a groundbreaking ceremony. We purchased the land and immediately moved on it. It's been on budget and on track," he said.All patients will be seen by a doctor within 30 minutes of the time they check into the new center. If the staff fails to meet that guarantee, patients will be offered the choice of a gift card or a donation made in their names to a local charity."A patient can enter our doors in Austintown with chest pains and be undergoing heart catheterization within 40 minutes," Aubel said.Among the others on hand at this morning's ceremony were Bishop Thomas Tobin, representing the Diocese of Youngstown, who performed the prayer service and blessing; Germaine Bennett, chair of the board of trustees at HM; Glen Ray, director of emergency medicine at St. Elizabeth's; and Warren "Bo" Pritchard, Austintown trustee.Visit Humility of Mary Health Partners at www.hmpartners.orgContact Dan O'Brien at [email protected]"