In just a few short months, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany is scheduled to open, ushering in a brand-new model for how communities deal with health care.
The Heit Center, located in New Albany’s Village Center, will open its doors in January 2015.
It’s coming about through a partnership among The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, the city of New Albany and Healthy New Albany.
Clinical services will take up most of the 55,000-square-foot building’s second floor. Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center will lease about 70 percent of the building, and its offerings will include expert consultations, a health and fitness center, educational programming, primary care, sports medicine and orthopedics, physical therapy, laboratory and X-ray services, integrated medicine and medical massages, health education, and research, along with state-of-the-art technology to keep everything directly connected.
Nationwide Children’s will also offer services – including pediatric orthopedics, sports physical therapy, therapeutic massage, radiology, lab services and health education – on the second floor.
The first floor of the building is where Healthy New Albany’s offerings – which will include workshops, lectures, cooking classes and meeting rooms for community activities – will be housed. Also on the first floor is Ohio State’s Health and Fitness Center, opening in December, which has space on part of the second floor as well. It’s a first-of-its-kind, research-based approach to disease prevention and focus on health and wellness
The Heit Center is separated from its peers by its comprehensive focus on health, which emphasizes prevention rather than treatment. It’s part of OSU’s new paradigm in health care, which is called the Personalized Health Model.
Center members will undergo comprehensive health assessments, determining what risks they may face and how to prevent them, as well as how best to maintain optimum health. Every person’s recommendations will be different, specifically tailored to him or her in order to paint the clearest picture possible.
Among the tests used to determine a person’s baseline health are a graded cardiovascular fitness test, advanced body composition screening, wellness biomarker blood test, comprehensive lifestyle assessment, flexibility and mobility screening, balance evaluation, and identification of personal health and wellness goals.
Each member will receive a copy of his or her overall assessment, and it will also be uploaded along with his or her individual exercise program to that person’s wellness cloud so the information can be accessed anywhere by the member and throughout the center by his or her Wellness Coach. It will also be integrated into the fitness equipment.
Members will also be provided the opportunity to participate in the Buckeye Wellness Coaching packages specific to their individual health needs and goals.
Those who select the more specialized Buckeye Wellness Coaching plan receive extensive oversight from their Wellness Coaches and other center professionals to support specific health concerns:
- Healthy Heart: preventing heart disease and improving and maintaining heart health;
- Healthy Weight: strategies for reaching and maintaining an ideal weight;
- Cancer Prevention/Recovery: steps in preventing types of cancers and how to maintain cancer recovery; and
- Healthy Bones and Joints: strategies on how to avoid musculoskeletal injury and improve strength, endurance and physical activity based on one’s capabilities and limitations.
Buckeye Wellness Coaching participants will also receive extensive recommendations, consultations and ongoing support from specialists with master’s degrees and nationally recognized certifications such as Registered Dietitian, Registered Nurse, Exercise Physiologist, Physical Therapist and Fitness Specialist.
This type of delivery system, which integrates every person’s goals and assessments with the services available to them, is unprecedented in the health care world. Every aspect of each member’s health and wellness plans will be shared throughout the center by staff and equipment alike.
Though the full opening of the center is still a few months away, memberships will be available much sooner. Memberships go on sale at the center in mid-August. One-time enrollment fees are $299 for an individual, $549 for a couple and $599 for a family. This includes the cost of the initial and follow-up assessments. New Albany residents get 75 percent off enrollment fees. Memberships are $89 monthly for a single person, $129 for a couple and $144 for a family. For more information, call 614-685-1820 or email John Paro, General Manager, at john.paro@osumc.edu.
