POMEROY, Ohio — A critical access hospital is again being considered an element of a larger health care campus under development outside Pomeroy.

Those working to expand health care services in Meigs County are still defining the county’s most critical needs and have no set deadline to seek grant funding to assist with facility construction cost, Economic Development Director Perry Varnadoe said Friday.

The county’s plans to seek $3 million in construction funding for a 24-hour emergency room through the U.S. Economic Development Administration have been ranked top priority in the Buckeye Hills/Hocking Valley Regional District. Final plans submitted for funding could include a critical access inpatient hospital facility, as well as an emergency room, Varnadoe said, but there is no deadline or firm schedule for applying for funds.

That funding source is only one of several that could be accessed, Varnadoe said, and until county commissioners determine what services are most need, no funding package will be finalized.

Commissioners sought full funding for construction of a new free-standing 24-hour emergency room through the federal stimulus program, but have not been approved for funding.

A research team the county hired a year ago to complete a feasability study found nearly no examples of a successful free-standing emergency facility in a rural community. Instead, that study recommended investigating the possiblity of an emergency department operated through an existing healthcare provider or at least through a partnership with a provider.

Varnadoe said Friday very preliminary discussions have now begun with another existing healthcare concern, but emphasized that those talks are only exploratory.

The site under consideration for a medical and hospital campus will soon see construction of a $2 million-dollar facility to be used by Family Health Care, Inc., a federally-qualified health care center providing outpatient family medical services to the public on a sliding scale.

Family Health Care now operates its outpatient clinic in Middleport, but has twice outgrown space since adding two physicians to its staff. The non-profit operation received federal stimulus funding for part of the construction cost. The facility will be nearly identical to the clinic it built in McArthur.

Health care planners have investigated the possibility of an FQHC-affiliated emergency department, but any ED constructed would be separate and apart from the Family Health Care facility.

Commissioners have been seeking partners for their plans since Veterans Memorial Hospital and its emergency room were closed.