The Timken Foundation of Canton has awarded Akron Children’s Hospital a $1.5 million grant to support the construction of Akron Children’s new Health Center in North Canton.
Akron Children’s announced in late 2017 that it would bring pediatric primary care, along with about a dozen of its most in-demand pediatric specialty care practices and rehabilitation services, to a new three-story, 38,000-sq.-ft. building in North Canton.
Funding from the Timken Foundation of Canton will be used to outfit the new building through the purchase of pediatric medical equipment, security systems, information technology and to furnish exam rooms and waiting areas.
Akron Children’s Health Center, North Canton, to be located at 6076 Whipple Ave., on Aultman Hospital property, will open in early 2019. The hospital plans for services currently located at three other Stark County locations to be consolidated in this one convenient location.
The first floor of the building will be the North Canton office of Akron Children’s Hospital Pediatrics, a medical home for babies, children and teens staffed by board-certified pediatricians, nurse practitioners and pediatric nurses. This office will also have on-site experts in behavioral and mental health and positive parenting as these services are in great demand.
The second floor will have outpatient offices for Akron Children’s pediatric specialties, including cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, physiatry (physical medicine), gastroenterology, allergy/immunology, pulmonology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, urology, and sports medicine. The ground level will house rehabilitative services – physical, occupational and speech therapy.
The North Canton Health Center will cost approximately $13.8 million and will support about 50 jobs. The building will be owned by a subsidiary of the Stark County developer, A. Altman Company, which will construct, own and lease the building to Akron Children’s.
“We are grateful that the Timken Foundation sees the value in this project,” said William Considine, CEO of Akron Children’s Hospital. “Children from Stark County represent up to 20 percent of Akron Children’s total patient volumes in certain clinical areas, such as our NeuroDevelopmental Science Center, Rehabilitative Services, and our Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology, so this facility will be especially wonderful for those families who have children with chronic illnesses and require frequent outpatient visits. We will be able to keep it all in their backyard.”
Considine said Akron Children’s values collaboration with community partners, such as the Timken Foundation of Canton, Aultman Hospital, and the A. Altman Company.
“We applaud the philanthropic spirit of the Timken Foundation of Canton,” he said, “and share its commitment to investing in our communities and in our children – for investing in them is surely an investment in our future.”
