About this story series
This is the third in a series of consecutive Sunday stories on major hospitals serving Butler County. The Journal interviewed hospital executives about plans for their organizations in the year ahead, and how pivotal 2013 is for the major employers as they adjust for health care reform.
Feb. 10: West Chester Hospital
Feb. 17: Mercy Health — Fairfield Hospital
TODAY: Fort Hamilton Hospital
March 3: McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital
March 10: Atrium Medical Center
March 17: Bethesda Butler County TriHealth Hospital
Fort Hamilton Hospital has a major initiative to attract more doctors, which is helping the hospital add more services, hospital leaders said.
The Hamilton community hospital is now two years into President Jennifer Swenson’s goal to recruit 50 doctors in five years, beginning when she started in 2010.
“We’re having to rebuild the medical staff because of succession planning, it’s an older population, but we are also growing,” Swenson said. “We’re adding services back to the hospital that have left and in order to do that you have to add physicians.”
Dr. Steve Rudich, a surgeon specializing in complex liver procedures and general surgery, joined the medical staff last year, the hospital said.
Fort Hamilton started back a sports medicine program in 2012 headed by athletic trainer Travis Snyder, a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Sports Medicine Team. He previously worked at a different hospital within Kettering Health Network, the same health system.
Kettering Health cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Peter Pavlina began offering services in Hamilton. A new cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Ahmad Halal, will be based at Fort Hamilton when he starts his position in March, Swenson said.
Network officials said at the end of February Dr. Amol Soin, who specializes in interventional pain management, will expand services at Fort Hamilton’s medical office building.
New medical staff leaders have also been named. Dr. Manish Sachdeva earlier this year was named the new medical director of the Center for Wound Healing at Fort Hamilton. Additionally, Dr. Marcus Romanello assumed the role of emergency department director in January 2012.
These are just some examples of new doctors that have come to Hamilton.
“We’re not only going after physicians, we’re going after quality physicians,” Swenson said.
Fort Hamilton joined Dayton area health system Kettering Health Network in July 2010 after the break up of the previous health system it was part of, Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. Health Alliance has become UC Health.
Fort Hamilton was financially struggling when Swenson became president toward the end of 2010. The hospital’s revenues don’t yet meet expenses, but hospital finance chief Pete King said progress is being made.
“We’re getting to where we need to be; not there yet, but we’ve made improvements in our productivity, so our costs of providing care. We’re getting more efficient using some of these lean methods to get there,” King said. “We’ve had challenges. We’re needing to build the medical staff, but that’s coming along.”
It takes time for new doctors to build their practice, he said.
The hospital’s efforts to get more lean and productive have trimmed the number of employees. Fort Hamilton had 1,037 full- and part-time employees as of the end of 2011, and 958 as of the end of 2012, not including medical staff, according to figures provided by the hospital. The hospital is still the city’s largest employer behind county government and Hamilton City School District.
One of the Hamilton hospital’s latest developments is the relocation of its sleep center. The sleep center moved across the street into the lower level of Community First Solution’s headquarters on Eaton Avenue, opening January this year. The hospital took the opportunity to upgrade its equipment, Swenson said.
Dr. Wole Onadeko was named the sleep center’s new medical director.
Last year Fort Hamilton added telemedicine services with its first robot named SPOT: Stroke Program Optical Telecommunication. The robot is placed in the emergency department for stroke and neurological patients. It is a partnership with UC Health’s stroke team.
Hamilton doesn’t have surgical robots.
“Typically some of these patients were transferred in the past out of the hospital because it’s a high-end neuro service and through this technology through the robot, the physician’s actually able to be by the bedside looking at all the reports, and able to assess the patient,” Swenson said.
Construction is under way on a $5 million emergency department renovation and expansion, which is on track to open August 2013. The expansion not only gives the ER more space, but has allowed the hospital to redesign work flow to a more efficient process, reducing door to doctor time.
“I’ve often said the city of Hamilton and the hospital are on the same journey. We’re trying to rebuild reputation wise and really rebuild in general,” Swenson said.
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