BUTLER-WARREN COUNTY HEALTH CARE EXPANSION
Cincinnati- and Dayton-area health systems have the following building projects in various stages in Butler and Warren counties:
• The Christ Hospital Health Network has confirmed plans to expand in Butler County, but has shared little more in details about the project or investment. Spokeswoman Christa Moore said only that "we have made a significant commitment."
• Already Liberty Twp.'s largest employer, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has a pair of construction projects underway at its Liberty Campus, which can be seen from Interstate 75. The total investment to add an inpatient floor and built a proton therapy center for cancer treatment is approximately $160 million;
• Premier Health, which operates Middletown hospital Atrium Medical Center, first announced in May plans to open an $11.5 million medical facility in Mason including a 24-hour emergency center, physician offices and medical spa;
• Meanwhile, Kettering Health Network is continuing construction on a freestanding emergency department in Franklin. It's the same hospital group that owns Fort Hamilton Hospital;
• Additionally, West Chester Hospital is raising funds to add maternity services next year; and
• Most recently, TriHealth and Oxford hospital McCullough-Hyde Memorial finalized plans this month to affiliate, a deal in which TriHealth will take majority ownership in the independently-owned Butler County hospital. TriHealth first started expanding into Butler County in 2012 with the purchase of the former Butler County Medical Center in Hamilton. A 51,000-square-foot expansion is underway on the Bethesda Butler campus to expand from 10 patient beds to 48 beds by the end of 2015.
If McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital hadn’t been able to come to a deal with Cincinnati-area health system TriHealth, could the Butler County hospital have survived on its own?
“That was the $64,000 question we put to ourselves three years ago,” said Bryan Hehemann, president and chief executive officer of the Oxford hospital, which until Thursday was Butler County’s remaining independent hospital. The phrase refers to a 1950s American TV game show.
It’s just as easily the $1 million question, he said, or however you want to phrase it. That’s because the real answer is the hospital could have easily closed without the backing of a larger network to confront modern health care challenges such as keeping up with the costs of new technology. Hospitals have also faced a growing patient population with government-backed insurance plans that pay providers lower reimbursement rates.
“We came to the conclusion that we would not be able to be in a position to satisfy all the future requirements and challenges and financially, we wouldn’t have had the margins to support replacement of equipment and facilities and technology long-term here,” Hehemann said.
“Doing it alone, going solo, trying to remain independent was not in the cards,” he said.
So, a new era, as he referred to it, begins. On Thursday, Hehemann, along with John Prout, president and chief executive officer of TriHealth, and Richard Norman, the board chairman of the Oxford hospital, ceremoniously signed partnership documents.
The agreement spells out terms of an affiliation between the local hospital, with approximately 400 employees, and the health network including a name change to McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital — TriHealth. TriHealth will invest approximately $17 million to upgrade McCullough-Hyde’s medical record technologies, renovate the emergency department and operating rooms, and grow services.
“Many people are still leaving this community to go elsewhere for care and we need to be able to bring those services here to town,” Hehemann said. “They’ll have as good of care as they can get anywhere with TriHealth and won’t have to drive as far.”
Betty Gerber, 84, of Oxford, was at the Poplar Street hospital for a blood test. She’s hoping to see more dermatology and ear, nose and throat specialists with expanded office hours in Oxford.
“It’s inconvenient,” Gerber said of having to drive elsewhere for health services. “I hope that it will be more convenient for specialty doctors to come up here.”
TriHealth first started expanding into Butler County in 2012 with the purchase of the former Butler County Medical Center in Hamilton. It also owns TriHealth Bethesda Arrow Springs in Lebanon. The 11,600-employee hospital system, which operates Bethesda North and Good Samaritan hospitals in Clifton and Montgomery, is investing more in its northern Cincinnati expansion plans than anything else, CEO John Prout said.
Spending includes a 51,000-square-foot expansion underway on the now-named Bethesda Butler Hamilton campus to expand from 10 inpatient beds to 48 beds by the end of 2015. Group Health, the network’s doctor practice, opened last year a new medical office building in West Chester Twp.
By partnering with McCullough-Hyde, TriHealth enters a new market with local expertise, Prout said.
“We’ll be setting new goals over the next year in this region,” Prout said. “Together as a team we can really impact the health of the community quickly.”
Prior to reaching the deal with TriHealth, McCullough-Hyde announced intentions in 2013 to partner with Mercy Health, which operates a hospital in Fairfield. But those talks failed, and sent McCullough-Hyde back to the table to consider proposals with other health systems.
“TriHealth was able to satisfy the board’s request for a relationship that included local input and governance and shared decision making,” Hehemann said.
Construction on McCullough-Hyde’s new emergency room and operating rooms is expected to start later this year, Hehemann said.
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