Health care hub planned near downtown

Just east of Downtown Cleveland in the Midtown neighborhood is the new home of Lake Effect Health and affiliated companies that are relocating from suburban Brooklyn. The founder of those companies bought the building last summer and will renovate it to offer health care services from here (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.

Entrepreneur seeks to help fill St. Vincent’s void

The closure of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in 2022 has left a health care void on Cleveland near-east side. While that’s a big void to fill, an entrepreneur from the suburbs wants to start trying. And she’s already planted her flag at the northeast corner of Prospect Avenue and East 36th Street.

Seana Rutherford is a nurse practitioner who in 2018 founded Lake Effect Health — a private medical practice that was based in suburban Brooklyn. Last year, through an affiliate The Prospect Building LLC, she bought a 6,300-square-foot former law office at 3611 Prospect Ave. for $600,000, county records show.

Now she is seeking to renovate and re-equip the 70-year-old building for $350,000, according to plans that her architect ClevelandDRAW of Shaker Heights submitted last week to the Cleveland Building Department.

The work involves mostly interior remodeling with new offices, partitions, finishes, new mechanical-electrical-plumbing systems and fixtures plus a roof replacement, the building permit application shows.

“The Prospect Building will soon house Lake Effect Health, Healix Wound Care and The Indy Medical Aesthetics & Wellness — all companies I’ve founded and own,” Rutherford told NEOtrans in an e-mail.

Nurse-practitioner, entrepreneur and founder of Lake Effect Health Seana Rutherford (LinkedIn).

“This acquisition has been an exciting venture as a female entrepreneur, and I’m particularly thrilled about the building’s location in Midtown,” she said. “The area is perfectly situated to provide excellent patient care, especially in light of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s closure.”

Rutherford described the new healthcare facility as offering a state-of-the-art hub for access to care. It will feature a diagnostic center, laboratory and rentable office spaces for other healthcare providers.

“This expansion reflects our continued growth and dedication to bringing innovative healthcare solutions to the Cleveland community,” she added.

Lake Effect Health was her first venture as a health care entrepreneur and it served as the foundation for her growing career. Over the years, Lake Effect has provided care to patients of all ages across Ohio in various settings and specialties.

Around the same time she started Lake Effect Health, she also founded Advanced Practice Preceptors of Ohio, LLC. That firm works one-on-one with graduate-level students to prepare them for their role as an advanced practice nurse.

Photo of 3611 Prospect Ave. that accompanied the Cresco sale listing of the property (Cushman & Wakefield).

Clinical experiences for students include assessment, diagnosis, treatment plans, follow up, documentation, medical billing/coding and professional conduct, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Rutherford began her career as a registered nurse at Cleveland Clinic in 2007. Although she worked there for eight years, she simultaneously worked on a wound care team at Regency Hospital Company for five of those years and at Ideal Home Heallth Care for another two years.

After she left Cleveland Clinic, she was as a family nurse practitioner at Premier Physicians. There, she also served as aa wound consultant as a Certified Wound Specialist, her profile noted.

The Prospect building, although built in 1955, had served as the law offices for the Hatton family from 1976 to 2012. More recently, public records show Zoller Biacsi Co, LPA and John J. Fahsbender had law offices there. The sale of the property by PI Prospect LLC was handled by Cresco Real Estate.

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