The OES visited Doctors Hospital of Stark County on March 13, 2010. The facility was also known as Affinity Medical Center: Doctors Campus or simply Doctors Hospital to those in the Canton/Massillon area. The hospital was formed in 1963 by five physicians and a businessman. The original building was shaped like an airplane with a main corridor and two wings that included 48 beds. The hospital was expanded several times over the years to keep up with demand and the building eventually encompassed 300,000 square feet.
Doctors Hospital offered a full range of medical and surgical services including an emergency department, an outpatient clinic, intensive care units, cardiovascular services, a maternity ward, a pain treatment center and more. The hospital also served as a teaching hospital for Ohio University. In 2006, Doctors Hospital merged with Massillon Community Hospital to become Affinity Medical Center. The merge would prove to be a fatal blow to Doctors Hospital. In September 2008, all services were relocated to the Massillon facility and Doctors Hospital was permanently closed. The building was put on the market for some time, but no deals could be reached. The Stark County morgue moved out of the building in 2009 and in December of that year, it was decided that Doctors Hospital would be demolished. Luckily a property company bought the facility in 2010, sparing it from the wrecking ball. There has been interest in converting the facility into an assisted living center, a halfway house or even apartments, but none of those deals have gone through thus far. Doctors Hospital was sold in 2019 and demolished to make way for new development.
During our visit, most of the hospital seemed to be in decent shape. The roof in the original section leaked causing some water damage and several pipes had broken due to the cold winter. Most of the medical equipment and supplies had either been transferred to the Massillon, sold or destroyed, but some equipment remained. Several boxes of biohazardous materials collected throughout the building sat in the lobby awaiting proper disposal. An entire wing of the hospital was being renovated up until the day the building closed and sat incomplete. It was in this wing where the reportedly haunted room was located.
Yes, as with many hospitals, Doctors Hospital was said to be haunted. Water faucets would turn on and off in plain view and the ghosts seemed to play pranks on the staff. Nurses heard their names being called when no one else was around and an apparition of humanoid mist had occasionally been spotted. A nurse’s aid who died from a heart attack while working could be heard humming from beyond the grave. One room was particularly haunted by an elderly woman who cursed the room. Coldness often filled the room and patients reported an elderly woman who tried to remove their covers and kick them out of the room. A hospital administrator who tried to stay in the room one night only made it to 2:00 AM. The room was then sealed off and no patients were ever assigned there again. Based upon what employees have told us, we believe this room was in the wing that was undergoing renovation. The room had obviously been split in two and could have possibly become a storage area. The doorway to the patient bathroom had been sealed off from the room and relocated to the hallway to become a standalone restroom. We attempted to record for EVP in the room but didn’t find anything unusual. However, we did record EVP elsewhere in the building, including in the lab area.
Thank you to an anonymous friend of the OES for taking us on the tour of Doctors Hospital.
Location Information: Demolished
Doctors Hospital was located at 400 Austin Avenue NW in Perry Heights; Stark County.
The Bailey Street Entrance served as the hospital's main entrance.
Notices on the main entrance doors. One sign warned of contaminated materials and the other gave the Massillon hospital's contact information.
Looking west from the main entrance.
A separate entrance for the rehabilitation department.
The emergency department entrances.
This door served as the public entrance to the emergency room.
The ambulance entrance to the emergency room.
Electrical boxes at the rear of the building.
The rear of Doctors Hospital and its large parking lot.
The maintenance bay.
The freight delivery area.
This was the hospital's original main entrance.
An entry for the pain management center.
The rooftop of Doctors Hospital.
A very large air handler unit. You'll see inside this unit later.
The red and white antenna once served Doctors Hospital. It was later determined that an antenna of this size was not needed, so the hospital gave it to the fire department.
One of the hospital's courtyards.
The main lobby of Doctors Hospital.
A snack bar was located just off of the main lobby. We were told their food was pretty decent.
This used to be the hospital's gift shop.
A stretcher remained in the lobby waiting area.
The main lobby waiting area.
Registration windows were just off of the main lobby.
A couple of wheelchairs in the main lobby.
Boxes of infectious waste gathered throughout the building sat near the main lobby's window.
The hospital's switchboard room was being used as a temporary security office.
An alarm panel in the switchboard room.
A print out of various issues with the fire alarm.
Holes in the wall where equipment used to be.
A map of the entire hospital.
Walking down one of the many corridors.
A directory sign helped people navigate the hospital corridors.
The original main entrance to the hospital.
The ceiling tiles of the old lobby were different than those used in the newer sections of the hospital.
This appeared to be the original reception desk.
The Holy Bible from the chapel was at the reception desk.
Offices off of the old lobby.
The original three wings of Doctors Hospital.
The hospital's chapel was located just off of the old lobby.
This sign directed people to Cardiovascular Services.
The hallway of the cardiovascular services department.
One of the cardiovascular treatment rooms.
This radioactive materials sign was posted on the door at the end of the hallway.
Some type of large machine used to be located here.
A treatment area to the left of the previous photo.
A lobby area just on the other side of cardiovascular services.
Some walkers remained in this area.
This door led to the X-Ray room.
The outline on the floor was where the X-Ray machine was once located.
The walls around the X-Ray room were lined with lead.
The lamp for viewing X-Ray charts was on the other side of the wall.
This room housed the hospital's MRI machine.
The entire MRI room was lined with copper.
A chair in the middle of the room.
An evacuation chart for the laboratory area.
Part of the Doctors Hospital laboratory.
Another lab.
The entrance to the Clinical Laboratory.
This room was one filled with counters and lab equipment.
The lab area also had a walk-in cooler.
Inside the cooler.
A ventilation hood for the lab.
The laboratory's blood bank.
The patient records office.
This was where patient records were kept.
All of the records had been removed.
Work stations in the records department.
This area was for the hospital's resident doctors.
A dry-erase board listed the intern's rotations.
The residents' lounge area.
The shower area for residents.
A used bar of soap remained on the shelf.
Photographs: ICU, Maternity, Surgery, Emergency Rooms, Art & Chart
The Intensive Care Unit.
The nurse's station for the intensive care area.
Inside one of the intensive care rooms.
Another intensive care room. This one had wall mounted equipment left.
The blood gas room was where oxygen levels in blood were tested.
A slide viewing machine. Most slides appeared to be teaching diagrams of various parts of the body.
Going into the maternity ward.
The newborn nursery.
Observation windows for the nursery.
One of the maternity patient rooms.
There was lovely pink tile in the bathroom for maternity patients.
The maternity nurse's station.
The intensive care area for newborns.
One of the older delivery rooms. It is probably where C-sections were performed.
Storage shelves were to the left of the room.
These hoses hung from a retractable hose reel.
The second delivery room still had an operating light hanging from the ceiling.
Another look at the second delivery room.
Scrub sinks for the delivery area.
The more modern delivery room.
The maternity staff's locker room.
The outpatient surgery area.
One of the surgery patient rooms.
The nurse's station for the outpatient surgery area.
The surgery recovery room.
The recovery room nurse's station.
Going into the surgery rooms.
No unauthorized people were permitted beyond this point.
The first of four surgery rooms we walked into.
Large medical boxes that hung from the ceiling contained several hook-ups.
The hook-ups included oxygen, nitrogen, nitrous oxide, air and vacuum.
The second of the four surgery rooms.
Storage shelves in the surgery room.
Still in the second surgery room, all four surgery rooms were nearly identical.
The third surgery room.
And the fourth surgery room.
Sterilizing equipment sat here in a room between the surgery rooms.
X-Ray was used in the surgery ward.
X-Ray equipment was once housed here.
The darkroom.
Gas valves for one of the operating rooms.
The surgery supply storage room.
Some of the shelving for storage.
Some medical supplies were left on the floor.
A few catheters on the floor.
The doctor's locker room.
The back corner of the locker room.
The restroom in the locker area.
An authorized personnel sign for the emergency department.
Entering the emergency department.
A backboard was left at the ER's nurse's station.
A few pizza boxes were also left at the station.
The Doctors Hospital emergency room.
This was the trauma room for the emergency department.
One of the emergency department's treatment rooms.
Treatment room three in the ER.
One of the ER treatment rooms became a depository for bedside toilets.
One last treatment room for the emergency department.
A rather large bidet was at one end of the ER hallway.
This was the public's entrance to the emergency room.
Once in the ER, this was the registration window to be seen.
The ambulance entrance to the ER.
This was the decontamination room. Notice the shower head on the wall.
The control for the shower head was on the other side of the door.
The quiet room was located between the public and ambulance entrances.
It was in the quiet room where doctors broke bad news to families who had lost a loved one.
A wall from the original emergency room was preserved in a nearby storage area.
The wall was the only thing that remained of the old ER.
The original concept art for Doctors Hospital.
Doctors Hospital sometime before its most recent addition.
