David E. Dale/Herald Radiologic technician Margie Shrawder gets Herald News Editor Sarah Adams in the correct position for the DEXA unit to scan her lower spine. Bone density tests, which detect osteoporosis, are among the specialized services that will be available in UPMC Horizon’s Womancare Center.

UPMC Horizon said this morning it will build a $4.5 million center designed specifically to handle women’s health care.

In collaboration with Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System, the Womancare Center at UPMC Horizon will be housed in Hermitage Medical Park on North Hermitage Road near Highland Road.

When completed in the spring, the 25,000-square-foot center will house about two dozen Horizon health care professionals and staff members.

J. Larry Heinike, president and chief executive officer at Horizon, said focusing on women’s health issues is long overdue. "Typically, in the past health care has focused on men,’’ Heinike said.

Women are typically caregivers who have an important say in their family’s health care, said Kimberly Lombardi, director of the Womancare Center. The center is designed to help women with their own health issues.

In addition to giving birth, women have other unique health needs.

"There are diseases more prevalent in women like arthritis and lupus,’’ Ms. Lombardi said.

The center will house doctors’ office suites for seven obstetricians/gynecologists and a certified nurse midwife which will occupy 60 percent of the space. The remainder will house a diagnostic and education center.

The Womancare Center will offer prenatal care and testing, newborn and children’s services, breast care, bone health and gynecological services.

Specialists in cardiology, endocrinology, rheumatology, gastroenterology and neurology are expected to use the center. Also, diagnostic procedures at the center will include mammograms, ultrasound, X-ray, bone density and minimally invasive breast biopsy.

Other services at the center include a child-care provider while a woman is undergoing tests or procedures and simple blood drawing. The center will also offer activities and educational programs on women’s and infants’ health.

Horizon is joining forces with Magee because of its national and international reputation, Heinike said, and recognition of the Magee name is extremely high in surveys done in Mercer County. This is the seventh Womancare Center established under the Magee name.

Declining to reveal project volume figures for the center, Heinike said it would give relief to Horizon’s Farrell outpatient operation which is "busting at the seams.’’ He noted Horizon’s Greenville outpatient numbers are as busy as Farrell’s.

Births at the Farrell hospital have soared during the last two years, up by "a couple hundred percentage points, he added.

"Because of our merger with UPMC Health System, we are now able to offer the most comprehensive care to women in our community under a single roof,’’ he said this morning at a news conference at Sharon County Club. "Since the merger, UPMC Horizon has continued to expand its scope of services throughout Mercer County.’’

The Womancare Center will follow the procedures and philosophy of Magee, said Irma Goertzen, president and chief executive officer of Magee-Womens Hospital.

"The woman is at the center of all we do,’’ Ms. Goertzen said.

Since women make many of the health-care decisions for a family, women’s health care is a hot issue in the industry, she said.

"Women’s health has been neglected over the years,’’ Ms. Goertzen said of the health care industry. "Women’s health is not a pizazzy thing. Quite often it gets left behind.’’