To meet growing sports medicine and orthopedic service needs, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, Ohio,  plans to open a second Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Dublin, Ohio.

Services will include sports and orthopedic physical therapy, athletic training, radiology, and sports injury prevention instruction. The center will be one of only a handful of pediatric-focused sports medicine and orthopedic centers nationwide.

Scheduled to break ground in late March 2011, the center will be similar to Nationwide Children’s Westerville Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Westerville, Ohio, which was the first facility in central Ohio focused on pediatric sports medicine and orthopedics. The new facility will be situated near the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Dublin.

The center, planned at approximately 25,000 square feet, will offer two stories of patient care areas with the first floor housing clinic space, casting rooms, and radiology services. The second floor will have a two-lane track, basketball space, rehabilitation gym, and a performance center with state-of-the-art exercise equipment. There will be large areas with multipurpose sports and activity flooring that will be used for the Sports Medicine Personal Best Injury Prevention Programs.

"With our current Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Westerville at capacity, the new Dublin facility will support our growing need to treat young athletes around central Ohio," said Thomas Pommering, DO, medical director of Sports Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and clinical assistant professor of Pediatrics and Family Medicine at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, in a statement. "The number of kids who participate in youth sports has grown exponentially over the last 10 years, which, in turn, gives way to increased sport-related injuries. This new facility will serve not only as a place for treatment, but also as a place for children and their families to learn the best way to prevent injuries."

Nationwide Children’s Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center in Dublin is slated to open in early 2012 and will provide an expanded location for Nationwide Children’s sports medicine and orthopedic clinics, as well as sports and orthopedic physical therapy and functional rehabilitation for patients who typically have a type of orthopedic or athletic/activity-related injury.

Sports and Orthopedic Physical Therapy and Functional Rehabilitation services offered at the Dublin Close To Home Center on Perimeter Drive will move to the new center. Also, the Sports Medicine and Orthopedic clinics currently provided at the Dublin Close To Home Center on Venture Drive will move to the new facility.

The new facility will house at least 10 sports medicine and orthopedic physicians plus an additional 55 employees when it opens.

The City of Dublin has provided Nationwide Children’s with an economic incentive to assist in extending additional sports medicine and orthopedic services to Dublin and its surrounding communities.

[Source: Nationwide Children’s Hospital]