Kettering Health Network Fast Facts
60 state-of-the-art facilities
4 of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals, including Kettering, Grandview, Sycamore and Southview medical centers
8,000 employees, 1,200 physicians, 1,000 volunteers
Home to 900 students in nursing, imaging and other career tracks
HAMILTON — The Fort Hamilton Hospital could be the seventh hospital in the Kettering Health Network within a matter of months.
After announcing Thursday, Feb. 11, that the local hospital’s board voted to pursue an affiliation agreement with KHN, Lynn Oswald, senior vice president of Fort Hamilton, said the next step in the process will be signing an official letter of intent. Once legal evaluations are made, a final agreement could be signed within 90 to 180 days, said Kevin Lavoie, KHN spokesman.
The transition for patients should be transparent, as all insurances should still be accepted and doctors will still be able to perform at any hospitals where they have privileges. Oswald said they also do not foresee any changes in staff levels.
“We still have patients to take care and we have the right number of staff to fill that need.” Oswald said. “We don’t anticipate that anyone has to worry about their job at the hospital.”
The partnership is good news for the city, where Fort Hamilton remains the top employer with 175 beds, 1,140 employees and 150 practicing physicians, said Hamilton City Manager Mark Brandenburger.
“We’re just delighted. We see that this is a sure-fire indication that they are going to be in town and continue serving all of us when we have health problems,” he said.
The city made sure to provide an economic analysis to the Fort Hamilton staff, Brandenburger said, while negotiations with the Greater Cincinnati Health Alliance were ongoing. In August, Fort Hamilton announced it would withdraw from the health alliance.
When the hospital announced it was looking for a new network, it received six offers. Over the past nine months, Fort Hamilton’s board narrowed it down to TriHealth and KHN. One attraction to Kettering was its community mission, Oswald said.
“This structure accepts that the health care needs of the community exist and must be addressed regardless of the state of the economy or the patients’ ability to pay,” she said.
After more than 80 years serving the Hamilton community, Fort Hamilton Hospital officials say they hope a new alliance with Kettering Health Network will strengthen and protect that service for many more years.
Being a part of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati afforded Fort Hamilton many benefits through the years, said Lynn Oswald, senior vice president. Through the years as hospitals withdrew, the system changed and suddenly the vision that attracted Fort Hamilton — improving the health and well-being of the community in a safe and cost-effective manner — also changed. Hospitals in the alliance were focusing more on their own needs, which is why Fort Hamilton decided it would be better to seek another system, she said.
Oswald said Hamilton’s August 2009 announcement to withdraw from the alliance is now “imminent” but there is no animosity on either side about the decision .
Health Alliance officials did not return calls seeking comment.
Why Kettering Health Network?
One of at least six options that presented themselves when the hospital announced it would withdraw from the Health Alliance and seek a new partnership, Kettering Health Network offered the mission, opportunities and support a community hospital like Fort Hamilton needs, Oswald said.
KHN will bring hospital and physician expertise so providers can act as one collaborative health care team. It also will provide stability in the form of “back office” services, like billing, collections and marketing, Oswald said.
“The larger organization provides depth that allows the community hospital to continue to provide care even when the hospital’s financial results fluctuate from month to month,” she said.
While KHN is a Dayton-area system, Oswald said the decision to join was not necessarily based on wanting to grow its reach northward. Its closest Dayton competitor is Atrium Medical Center in Middletown, which is a Premier Health Partners hospital.
“We don’t share a market to a significant degree with Atrium,” Oswald said. “We’re not seeking to reach out into the Middletown area specifically more than that any patients who live there who want to use our services can do so.”
Interest in Hamilton
However, Fort Hamilton did provide a strategic interest to KHN, said Kevin Lavoie, network spokesman, since Butler County was identified by the group as an area it wanted to serve in.
“It’s really just an extension of the Dayton area. It’s all becoming one big city and (Hamilton) is at the southern most end of our territory that we are trying to serve.”
Assimilating a new hospital is old hat for KHN, as the network added Greene Memorial Hospital two years ago and Grandview and Southview hospitals 10 years ago.
“We have done this a few times. We’re used to incorporated different types of health care into our system,” Lavoie said.
Named one of the 50 best health systems in the country by Thomson Reuters, among numerous other awards, Oswald said Fort Hamilton is eager to be a part of a system that “seems to hold itself and the member hospitals accountable for compliance with the highest standards of care and operation.”
Next steps
Fort Hamilton officials still need to sign a letter of intent to join the Kettering Health Network. Officials said they expect a deal to close within the next 90 to 180 days.
It will take several years to transfer over support services such as billing and other common network functions, Oswald said, but to patients the move should be relatively seamless.
Staff levels should remain the same at Fort Hamilton, although employees could see some items like health care benefits eventually change. In terms of health insurance contracts for patients, Oswald said Fort Hamilton should continue to be able to accept all currently covered providers. Health insurance negotiations, which would be handled in the future by KHN, will likely commence at the end of 2010.
“In an volatile time for health care, we think this system will help us be able to better focus on our own mission and the community’s needs,” Oswald said.
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