Butler County Medical Center profile
What: An acute-care, medical-surgical hospital that opened in 2000 and grew to a 23-acre campus with other outpatient services
Where: 3075 Hamilton-Mason Road, Hamilton
Employees: More than 60 medical staff and more than 130 hospital employees
SOURCE: butlercountymedicalcampus.com
Discussions about Butler County Medical Center’s future could give a new health system a foothold in Butler County.
Before leaving in the past month, Matt Teleha, the medical center’s campus administrator, told the JournalNews in an email that the physician-owned medical center in Hamilton Enterprise Park is in discussions about “the success, growth, expansion of the Butler campus and its plans to continue to be the provider of choice for patients.”
Teleha is no longer with the company, said Julie Hellings, the medical center’s controller, and she declined to say anything more about discussions.
Speculation in the health community is the medical center would be a good place for a Cincinnati-based health system to compete.
No officials with regional health systems would confirm a deal is in the making, but discussions have occurred.
The competition is fierce in health care, and Butler County’s growing population and location along Interstate 75 between Dayton and Cincinnati has led Kettering Health Network and Premier Health Partners of Dayton; UC Health and Mercy Health Partners of Cincinnati; McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital of Oxford; and Butler County Medical Center to grow their presence serving the county.
Butler County Medical Center was opened in 2000 at 3075 Hamilton-Mason Road, Hamilton, by 16 physicians as a 16,000-square-foot ambulatory surgical center, Ohio’s first registered, physician-owned, multispecialty, surgery center. It doubled in size in an expansion in 2004 that included an eight-bed hospital.
Over the years, it has grown to become part of a 23-acre campus with an imaging center, dialysis services, two medical office buildings, a pathology lab, physical therapy, laboratory services and a sleep lab owned by more than 86 investors, according to its website.
Officials with TriHealth, the partnership of Good Samaritan and Bethesda North hospitals, would not confirm or deny if they’re in active talks to purchase or acquire the medical center.
“TriHealth is always open to exploring new opportunities with potential partners who can help us to more effectively achieve our mission of improving the health status of the people we serve. We are very engaged in what is going on in the local market, and we are evaluating the various opportunities that exist; however, we don’t have any further details to share at this time,” said Lisa Owendoff, spokeswoman for TriHealth, in a statement.
Kettering Health Network announced in March it purchased 135 acres of land in Fairfield Twp. less than two miles away after having discussions with the medical center. Kettering Health and Butler County Medical Center started speaking in the fall of last year, said Marielou Vierling, spokeswoman for Kettering Health.
“We had a very professional discussion with those folks at Butler County and came away with basically the idea that we did not want to pursue the option at this time or at the time we were discussing it with them,” Vierling said. “It is our belief that from a long term commitment, in order for us to provide the type of care, the excellent, outstanding care we want to provide and ease of accessibility for our patients and our physicians, we thought it would best be met with development of property just north of Ohio 129 and so that is why we purchased the property.”
Atrium Medical Center and McCullough-Hyde said they are not in discussion with the medical center. West Chester Hospital spokesman Grant Wenzel said, to his knowledge, the hospital is not engaged in talks to buy it. The Christ Hospital spokesman Michael Beauchat also said the Cincinnati hospital is not in active discussions.
But when asked if Christ Hospital ever joined discussions with Butler County Medical Center, Heather Adkins, chief strategy and mission officer, gave this statement: “Our organization remains interested in forming collaborative relationships with high quality providers across the continuum of health care and throughout the region we serve. We are not in active discussions with Butler County Medical Center.”
Mercy Health Partners, the parent organization of Mercy Hospital Fairfield, confirmed it’s not in active discussions with the center. Spokesman Pete Gemmer said Mercy Health is always open to exploring opportunities to improve access to health care services.
But if a new health system started offering services, Kenny Craig, president and chief executive officer of Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, said it wouldn’t add new players to the mix.
“I think it would be taking one and replacing it with another,” Craig said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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