Hospital job transfers a ‘stab in the back,’ says Xenia official

Jobs to move from Xenia to Beavercreek

Levy's passage makes hospital's decision sting worse for Xenia

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By Christopher Magan, Staff Writer Updated 5:15 PM Saturday, August 22, 2009

XENIA — To city leaders in Xenia, Kettering Health Networks’ announcement that half the 1,018 workers at the Greene Memorial Hospital campus may relocate to Beavercreek is akin to Atlanta snatching NCR’s corporate headquarters.

“A stab in the back,” was how Councilman Dennis Propes characterized the news that many of the medical workers at the Xenia campus likely will leave for a new $135 million facility to be built in Beavercreek.

Last November, county voters overwhelmingly approved the renewal of a levy that has supported the Xenia hospital since it was built in 1951. The city backed the $1.5 million-a-year tax measure, which was put to voters a full year before the levy was set to expire, because hospital leaders convinced them it was needed to maintain services in Xenia, Propes said.

Days after its passage, the hospital’s parent, Kettering Health Network, said it would build a new hospital in Beavercreek. Then, earlier this month, Greene Memorial Hospital President Greg Henderson announced that half of the Xenia workforce could be transferred.

Propes wants to know why more state leaders aren’t griping like they did when NCR, Dayton’s last Fortune 500 company, said it was moving to Georgia. “Imagine what the loss of 500 jobs will do to a community our size,” he said.

Frank Perez, president and CEO of Kettering Health Network, said only 576 of the medical campus workers are hospital employees and he expects about 500 workers to remain in Xenia. Kettering has no control over the other ancillary workers on the campus, he said.

“We are strongly committed to Xenia and Greene County,” he said.

County Commissioners Rick Perales and Alan Anderson say they will hold Greene Memorial Hospital officials to their promise to provide adequate services to residents in eastern Greene County.

“They made a commitment and we are going to try to hold them to that,” Perales said.

Keep reading: Levy's passage makes hospital's decision sting worse

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