ASHLAND – For decades, Loudonville residents have had to leave the village for access to a walk-in clinic.
“Loudonville is like 25 miles from Wooster, Mansfield, Mount Vernon and Ashland, so people in this area had lots of choices to seek care, but they still had to travel for that,” said Cathy Conrad, clinical coordinator for University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center.
That’s why UH Kettering StatCare, located at UH Kettering Health Center at 546 North Union Street, is a welcome addition to the area. Health system officials and community members celebrated with an open house and ribbon cutting Monday.
“Patients have been extremely receptive to it,” Conrad said. “We’ve been extremely busy since we opened Jan. 16, which is great. We feel very strongly that this was treatment this area needed, so we’re thrilled that we’re able to provide that.”
The UH Kettering Health Center building opened in the mid 1950s as an acute care facility with a maternity ward, surgery ward, emergency ward and a medical surgical unit.
The maternity ward closed in the late 1960s, but the others services continued until 1993, when Kettering affiliated with Ashland’s Samaritan Health System. At that time, Kettering became an outpatient department of Samaritan, offering only laboratory, radiology and nursing services such as wound care.
Noticing the need for more services close to home for Loudonville area residents, University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center made plans to bring a walk-in clinic to the area.
The Samaritan Hospital Foundation gave $250,000 toward the renovation for the Kettering facility to accommodate the new services.
“A lot of the area physician offices are not accepting new patients, so there are a lot of patients right now who don’t have a primary care physician. So this StatCare will be open to them,” Conrad said.
She added that StatCare will also be available to serve Loudonville’s tourists who may receive minor injuries while camping or canoeing.
Loudonville native and certified family nurse practitioner Michael Bitner is the primary care provider at StatCare.
“My mom has Lingenfelter Jewelers downtown and I grew up there with my grandparents, just helping them serve the community, so when this opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it,” Bitner said. “It makes your work more gratifying to be able to help people that you know.”
Bitner’s wife is also a nurse and runs a cardiac rehab and stress lab in Millersburg. The couple have four children and own a 20-acre tree farm in Loudonville.
The StatCare walk-in clinic is open to treat sprains, minor broken bones, stings, rashes, minor infections, sore throats, minor burns and other non-life threatening diseases or injuries Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sports physicals are available for $25.
The Kettering center’s laboratory is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday for blood draws with a physician’s order. The radiology department is open Tuesday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for x-rays with a physician’s order.
For questions regarding UH Kettering StatCare, call 419-994-4121.
