CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The Great Seal Medical Campus has broken ground on a planned 83,000-square-foot medical facility in Chillicothe, a project its founder says is meant to change how health care is delivered in South Central Ohio. The Chillicothe Gazette reported on Friday, Nov. 6, that the Oct. 25 groundbreaking at 110 Cohen’s Way drew patients, families, health care professionals and government and community leaders, according to a community announcement about the project.
The campus was founded by Brian S. Cohen, a physician who has practiced in South Central Ohio for more than 25 years, according to the announcement reported by the Chillicothe Gazette. The Scioto Valley Guardian reported ahead of the ceremony that the project had been more than six years in the making, with planning, partnership and persistence behind the effort to expand access to advanced medical care for Chillicothe, Ross County and the broader region.
Plans outlined in the announcement call for three main parts under one roof. A 20,000-square-foot surgery center would include three Aspire Integrated Surgical Environment operating rooms and a cardiac catheterization laboratory, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. Another 10,000 square feet is planned for diagnostic imaging and urgent care, and about 53,000 square feet is designated for multispecialty medical offices.
The campus is also planned to offer rehabilitation services, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. Its design will incorporate infection-prevention technology and systems intended to reduce potential sources of contamination, the announcement said — a feature that fits the founder’s stated focus on patient safety as the center of the new facility’s design.
U.S. Sen. Jon Husted was among the elected officials who attended the groundbreaking, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. “I just want to say, Dr. Cohen, thank you for your leadership, for inspiring others, and to this community, congratulations,” Husted said, according to the Chillicothe Gazette.
Cohen described his own goal in similar patient-first terms. “My goal has always been to change the way healthcare is delivered, to put the focus where it belongs: on the patient and their safety,” Cohen said, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. Cohen Orthopedic, Cohen’s practice, describes the campus on its website as built on that same vision and is posting construction updates as work proceeds.
For Ross County residents, the campus would bring surgical care, imaging, urgent care, rehabilitation and specialty offices together at a single Chillicothe site, rather than spread across separate locations. The announcement did not provide a construction completion date or an opening date for the campus, the Chillicothe Gazette reported. What happens next is construction at 110 Cohen’s Way, with any opening timeline still to be announced by the project.