The MetroHealth System recently announced plans to convert facilities in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and Parma, Ohio, to community hospitals. The locations will focus on caring for patients who benefit from shorter hospital stays.

The current medical offices each have emergency departments and services including lab, pharmacy and radiology. The sites will become community hospitals with the addition of 12 single-occupancy patient rooms at the Cleveland Heights location and 16 at Parma.

The new hospitals will feature single-occupancy rooms, with space to accommodate family members. The units are designed to create a soothing atmosphere and includes floors which minimize noise and lighting to support a patient’s recovery. The esthetics will mirror the expanded Critical Care Pavilion, which opened in 2016.

The facilities in Cleveland Heights and Parma were formerly HealthSpan urgent care sites and medical offices. In 2015, MetroHealth entered into an agreement with HealthSpan to transition the sites into MetroHealth facilities. The emergency departments opened in February 2016, followed by medical offices in April 2016. The addition of single-occupancy patient rooms to these sites allows for a seamless transfer of a patient to the hospital setting, while remaining close to their homes.

With the addition of the community hospitals, 80 percent of residents in Cuyahoga County will be within a 15-minute drive of a MetroHealth hospital. Construction is set to be complete by the end of this year and the facilities ready for patients by January 2018.

The announcement comes as the health system is undergoing a major campus transformation, with plans to build a new 12-story hospital tower on its main campus.