Akron Children's marked the expansion of its Warren Health Center on Wednesday, celebrating new space that adds 14 exam rooms for pediatric and specialty services along with dedicated rehabilitation space at the East Market Street location. The project grew the facility by 5,000 square feet, bringing its total footprint to 27,400 square feet.
The milestone was reported by the Tribune Chronicle, which detailed how the added space is meant to increase the hospital's capacity to care for more patients. The health center sits at 5000 E. Market St. in Warren, a location that according to the same report began years ago as a primary care office before growing into a broader hub offering specialty services, sports medicine, rehabilitation and urgent care.
Akron Children's President and CEO Chris Gessner said the hospital has expanded to meet changing needs of children and families, per the Tribune Chronicle's report. He also said increased need for specialized pediatric care in the Warren area led the hospital to expand services closer to home for local families.
A Growing List of Services Under One Roof
The Warren Health Center's official location page lists an extensive menu of care available on site, including cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, neurology, orthopedics, primary care, surgery and pulmonology, according to Akron Children's. The same listing also includes rehabilitative services, sports medicine, sports rehabilitation, urgent care, urology, and laboratory and radiology services, making the newly expanded Market Street site a one-stop option for families who might otherwise have traveled further for specialized pediatric appointments.
Funding for the project came from a mix of community and state sources. Community partners contributed $900,000 to the expansion, the Tribune Chronicle reported, with Farmers National Bank, the Hynes and Finnegan Foundations, the Edward Barr Charitable Foundation and the Florence Simon Beecher Foundation all named as contributors. The state capital budget provided an additional $400,000 for the project, support that state Senator Sandra O'Brien and state Representatives Nick Santucci and David Thomas backed, according to the same report.
How the Site Has Evolved Over a Decade
Warren has seen Akron Children's footprint shift and grow over more than a decade. Back in 2014, the hospital announced it would begin offering specialty services in Warren starting Nov. 17 of that year, according to a release distributed via hannah.com. That original Market Place space, also at 5000 E. Market Street, was described at the time as 5,000 square feet with nine exam rooms and three assessment rooms — roughly the size of just the space added in this latest expansion.
Akron Children's has also built out other forms of access in the Warren area outside the Market Street site. Business Journal Daily reported on the opening of a clinic inside the Warren G. Harding Student Recreation and Wellness Center, noting it replaced the hospital's former downtown Warren office on Mahoning Avenue. Separately, the hospital debuted a mobile care unit in Warren described by WKBN as a fully equipped primary care clinic on wheels with two exam rooms, which was initially scheduled to rotate through tri-county locations each Wednesday and Thursday.
Together, the expanded Market Street center, the campus clinic and the mobile unit reflect a broader pattern of Akron Children's deepening its presence across the Warren area over the past decade. For families in Trumbull County, the latest expansion means more specialty and rehabilitative appointments can now happen without a trip to Akron.
