$4.5 million project will begin this spring;
$1.5 million capital campaign will support project
The Women’s Center of Bluffton Hospital will be established at Bluffton Hospital this year as the hospital fine-tunes its focus to better serve women.
 
The announcement follows a yearlong evaluation of services and development of a long-term plan by the hospital administration.
 
“While continuing to maintain all of our current array of services, we’ve created a plan to specialize in women’s services,” Chris Keller, chief administrative officer of Bluffton Hospital, explained to The Icon earlier this week.
 
This emphasis comes with the full intention to keep the hospital viable in its rural setting.
 
To make this happen, in December the Blanchard Valley Health System Board of Trustees approved $4.5 million for the creation of The Women’s Center of Bluffton Hospital.
 
Blanchard Valley Health Foundation has established a $1.5 million capital campaign to support the Center’s creation.
 
The project calls for renovations to begin early this year with completion in 2017. All renovation will occur inside the existing hospital.
 
The Center, housed on the hospital’s second floor, will include several physicians providing a variety of specialty services.
 
The Women’s Center of Bluffton Hospital will include:
• Additional gynecological surgery including robotics
• Pelvic pain center (self-referral for both men and women)
• Medical spa (self-referral for both men and women)
• Expansion of existing services in obstetrics and ancillary testing
• Cosmetic surgery
 
This will require relocation and expansion of diagnostic testing, including radiology, laboratory and EKG adjacent to the second-floor Center.
 
Also, the hospital will expand its existing operating services to accommodate robotic surgery.
 
The medical spa, which involves skin rejuvenation procedures, will be located near the Garau Street front entrance.
 
 
One part of the hospital’s women’s focus already in place, is the announcement of Dr. Robert Schutz, joining Bluffton Women’s Care, part of Blanchard Valley Medical Practices.
 
Keller said that the hospital needed a strategy for its long-term viability. An important part of that strategy development included visits to other women’s hospitals, and focus groups discussions.
 
“Our vision is to revitalize Bluffton Hospital through the development of a Women’s Center that establishes it as a destination location for women’s health by welcoming patients from across our region and beyond,” said Keller.
 
“Small, rural hospitals across the United States are experiencing pressure to continue to exist. We want to avoid that in Bluffton,” she added.
 
“We strongly believe that the Women’s Health Center will allow us to be successful.”