Less than one year after U.S. Route 33 officially bypassed Nelsonville, the northern Athens County village appears to be losing another long-held piece of infrastructure.
OhioHealth announced in a news release Monday that Doctors Hospital Nelsonville will close its inpatient operations by the end of the year, signaling an end to the hospital expected within the next few years.
In its place, OhioHealth will build a facility solely for outpatient services starting next year, according to the release, and afterwards, Doctors Hospital will be shut down for good.
While construction takes place over the next 18 to 24 months, the 24-hour emergency room and other outpatient services will stay open, which LaMar Wyse said in the release, won’t come at much cost to Nelsonville.
Wyse is the chief operating officer at the hospital.
“. . . With only 20 percent of people in Nelsonville coming to Doctors Hospital Nelsonville for inpatient care, and with an average inpatient census of about four patients per day, it became obvious that keeping the hospital open was not a viable option,” Wyse said. “In fact, what the community is saying it needs — both in their words and actions — is more robust, convenient outpatient care.”
In the release, Wyse called the decision to close Doctors Hospital an “emotional” one.
The hospital has 170 current employees, said OhioHealth spokesman Mark Hopkins in an email, and Ohio Health isn’t sure how that number may or may not fluctuate at the new facility.
OhioHealth also isn’t sure what services the new facility will provide, according to the release, but similar facilities offer urgent care, imaging, laboratory services and physician offices.
Doctors Hospital has been in Nelsonville since 1950, when it opened as Mount Saint Mary Hospital.
