LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Atrium Medical Center aims to make health care more accessible in Butler County, with a new facility in Liberty Township.
The 12,000-square-foot facility will be built on three acres at 6615 Cincinnati-Dayton Road and will house a primary care practice.
“Primary care is the focus,” said Michael Uhl, president of Atrium Medical Center.
Liberty Family Medicine will relocate to the facility once it’s complete. The primary care practice currently operates in West Chester as part of the Premier Physician Network. The network and Atrium Medical Center are both run by the Dayton-based nonprofit Premier Health System.
Premier Health operates numerous medical centers and hospitals in southwest Ohio, including Good Samaritan and Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton and Hyatt Center in Tipp City. Atrium locations include the full-service hospital Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, Atrium Health Center Mason, Atrium Health Center Trenton and various physicians’ offices.
The new center also will offer specialized medical care. The types of specialized services are yet to be determined. Atrium representatives will consider which services would be most advantageous to the community, Uhl said.
“We want to make sure we have accessible health care right in the community’s backyard,” he said.
The project is currently in the planning stage, but things should start taking shape soon for the new medical center. Atrium representatives are in the final phase of selecting a developer, and the facility is tentatively expected to be complete in early 2018.
“We’re very excited to have Atrium and Premier join the Liberty family,” said Liberty Township trustee Tom Farrell.
Access to quality medical care previously required long drives for community members in and around Liberty Township, he said.
Growth in the area has brought with it increased access to medical care. The township is now home to a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital campus and a Christ Hospital outpatient center. A Christ Hospital medical center with an emergency room, extended stay care and other services is slated to open next winter.
“The medical industries brought their services to the residents,” Farrell said.
Having resources like health care available is one incentive that keeps West Chester and Liberty townships’ 100,000 residents where they are, he added.
Thanks to recent entertainment and retail developments in the area and the townships’ positions along the I-75 corridor, they also have become destination spots for visitors.
“Having these resources available is part of the reason why more and more people start to come to the community,” Farrell said.
The growth isn’t expected to slow down any time soon. Liberty Township is currently home to about 40,000 residents. That number is expected to grow substantially.
“We are expecting to double,” Farrell said. “We can’t do it without partners, especially in the medical field.”
“It’s definitely an area that’s growing,” Uhl said. “And with all of the ongoing development in that area, there will certainly be need for medical services and primary care.”
