Cincinnati Children’s held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week to celebrate the health system’s first Urgent Care in Northern Kentucky.
It will open Tuesday, July 1, at the renovated Cincinnati Children’s Crestview Hills location, providing local families with access to expert pediatric medical providers on evenings and weekends.
“We’re excited to build upon the world-class care that Cincinnati Children’s already provides to kids who live in Northern Kentucky,” said Evaline Alessandrini, MD, chief operating officer. “Our patient families and primary care providers as well as community pediatricians requested that Cincinnati Children’s open this Urgent Care, and we’re pleased by the enthusiastic response from the community.”
About 114,000 kids live in Northern Kentucky, and families sometimes need to see a medical provider who specializes in pediatrics later in the day or on the weekend when their primary care physician’s office is closed.
“Families in Northern Kentucky tell us they would rather not drive far when their children need urgent care, but they still want the expertise that only a health system focused on pediatric care can provide,” Alessandrini said. “Renovating our Crestview Hills location to accommodate this Urgent Care should reduce travel times and ensure children get the prompt medical attention they need. We expect to treat more than 7,500 children at our Crestview Hills Urgent Care every year, and we have made a significant investment in the resources and people necessary to make that possible.”
Cincinnati Children’s Crestview Hills Urgent Care will be open to walk-ins on weekdays from 6 -11 p.m. as well as on Saturdays and Sundays from noon-7 p.m. – times when a doctor’s office is typically closed. The Urgent Care is located at 2765 Chapel Place in the Thomas More Office Park.
Medical providers at the Urgent Care can see patients from infancy through a child’s 21st birthday, addressing issues such as: allergies or asthma attacks; minor cuts, burns or dog bites; sore throats, colds and coughs; fevers (children 2 months or older); flu-like symptoms; diarrhea; dizziness; earaches or infections; headaches and minor head injuries; insect bites; nausea/vomiting; pink eye; rash; sprains and strains; stitches; mild stomach pain; and urinary infections or symptoms. For serious or life-threatening situations, families should take a child to the Cincinnati Children’s Emergency Department in Avondale or Liberty Township.
Cincinnati Children’s Crestview Hills already has a lab, which handles more than 30,000 tests annually, and it has expanded as part of the renovation. The lab will collaborate with the new Urgent Care on analyzing blood draws, urinalysis, and stool samples plus swabs to detect strep, flu or COVID-19.
As part of the renovation that enabled Urgent Care at Crestview Hills, Cincinnati Children’s added Sports Medicine at the location. Also, Cincinnati Children’s is adding to the specialty medical services already offered at Crestview Hills, including daily clinics for Ear, Nose & Throat as well as Gastrointestinal.
“We expect to see more than double the number of patient visits for ENT, Orthopedics, GI and Ophthalmology at Crestview Hills as a result of this investment in resources,” Alessandrini said. “In addition, we expect our Sports Medicine team will handle over 2,000 patient visits annually to start.”
Cincinnati Children’s recently doubled the size of its footprint at Crestview Hills to more than 40,000 square feet. Now, it expects to have slightly more than 100,000 patient encounters there annually, more than double the current number.
The entire building was renovated by Cincinnati Children’s at a cost of $17.7 million. Enhancements include new X-ray and other imaging equipment. Messer and Triversity Construction oversaw the renovation, while GBBN was the architectural firm that handled design. THP was structural engineer, KFI was mechanical engineer, Kolar design handled graphics and wayfinding, while RCF Group was furniture consultant.
New signage was installed to note the name of the location changed from Cincinnati Children’s Northern Kentucky to Cincinnati Children’s Crestview Hills.
Staffing at the location has increased by 50%. About 60 Cincinnati Children’s employees had been based at Crestview Hills, and about 30 new jobs were created as a result of the renovation and expansion of services. That doesn’t include the additional medical specialists who will rotate in for new or more frequent clinics. To accommodate the additional staff, Cincinnati Children’s doubled the size of the employee break room and added a conference room.
Cincinnati Children’s