OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital Expands Emergency Pediatric Care Through Partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital
OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital is enhancing its pediatric emergency care through a new partnership with Nationwide Children’s Hospital, one of the nation’s leading pediatric hospitals. As part of this collaboration, a pediatric nurse practitioner from Nationwide Children’s Hospital will provide specialized care for children in the O’Bleness Hospital emergency department during peak hours—from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. Outside of these hours, pediatric emergency care will continue to be provided by the O’Bleness emergency department team.
The initiative is designed to ensure that families in southeast Ohio have access to expert pediatric emergency care without needing to leave the region. A Nationwide Children’s provider will work exclusively in the emergency department daily, offering child-focused expertise and helping to address the unique ways illnesses and injuries present in children. Nationwide Children’s nurse practitioners will rotate coverage.
“We are thrilled to partner with Nationwide Children’s Hospital to bring this additional level of pediatric emergency care to our community,” said LeeAnn Lucas-Helber, president of O’Bleness Hospital. “The collaboration strengthens our ability to provide local, high-quality emergency care for children, reducing the need for families to travel for specialized pediatric treatment.”
The pediatric nurse practitioner will serve as an extension of Nationwide Children’s nationally recognized team, which has a longstanding reputation as a destination academic medical center for managing complex pediatric conditions.
"It is exciting to help meet an important community need by adding pediatric emergency support services to the established emergency care provided at OhioHealth O'Bleness," said Libbey Hoang, vice president of planning and business development at Nationwide Children's. "With the recent opening of our Close To HomeSMCenter on the O'Bleness campus, this further strengthens our commitment to meet patients and families right where they are in partnership with OhioHealth and the local and surrounding communities."
About Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2024-25 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit free-standing pediatric health care systems providing unique expertise in pediatric population health, behavioral health, genomics and health equity as the next frontiers in pediatric medicine, leading to best outcomes for the health of the whole child. Integrated clinical and research programs, as well as prioritizing quality and safety, are part of what allows Nationwide Children’s to advance its unique model of care. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 16,000 that provides state-of-the-art wellness, preventive and rehabilitative care and diagnostic treatment during more than 1.8 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded free-standing pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.
