The Doan Hall project, also known as the Digestive Health Project, on Ohio State’s campus is going to play a vital role with the Ohio State University Medical Center.
William Mifsud, administrative director for university hospitals, said this project will cost $35.9 million and is being funded through university bonds that are being paid by the OSU Medical Center to create a new central location for the digestive health department.
Demolition of old buildings has taken place and the steel structure is going up, Mifsud said. The next phase includes completion of the structure by October and then the completion of the new Digestive Health Center in April 2007, Mifsud said. Finally, in July 2007, the faculty office tower connected to the Digestive Health Center is scheduled for completion.
Tim Rumfield, division administrator in the department of internal medicine and division of digestive health, said “housed within the Digestive Health Center will be 16 state-of-the-art procedure rooms and eight outpatient clinic rooms all under the same roof.”
Mifsud said there will be the latest patient technology available on hand once this project is complete and the Digestive Health Center itself is on track for full completion in July 2007. It will include an attached tower for faculty offices, but the Digestive Health Center will be ready earlier than the office tower.
Edward Levine, a clinical associate professor in digestive health at the OSU Medical Center, said the new center will provide more space and that this “work in progress” will bring in more faculty, both for clinical care and research.
Rumfield said that patients come from surrounding states, including Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia and that the “ability to continue to recruit world-class gastroenterologists and leaders within academic medicine will be greatly improved by just having a new, state-of-the-art facility.”
Students will directly benefit from this project upon its completion. Being able to provide more lab space in the OSU Medical Center will allow more Ohio State medical and nursing students to have labs to learn in, Mifsud said.
Having a new office tower for faculty, the latest technology for patients and more labs for students is what makes this project worth the price tag.
Rumfield said that by having this new Digestive Health Center, it will bring together offices so that physicians do not have to work at two remote locations and at the central medical center. Making less travel for doctors will be one advantage, but Rumfield said that it will help the patients as well.
“Now patients will be able to get all of their digestive health care needs taken care of in one place,” said Rumfield.
