The McCullough-Hyde board of directors approved the move in a vote Tuesday evening. TriHealth’s board previously voted Oct. 8 to approve the letter of intent.
McCullough-Hyde first announced in October 2012 it would pursue an affiliation with a larger health system. In December 2013, the hospital entered into exclusive negotiations with the Mercy Health network that by March of this year had been suspended.
“We really feel we’ve chosen the right partner in TriHealth,” said Richard Norman, chairman of the McCullough-Hyde board of directors. “Health care is changing every day beneath our feet and we knew a couple of years ago that in order for us to be successful we needed to make changes, and those changes were going to be a real stretch for this hospital. We are smaller.”
The agreement with TriHealth would include a $17 million commitment from the health system to include:
- A $9.5 million state-of-the-art information technology system, Epic;
- $3.5 million to expand and improve clinical services;
- $2.5 million toward a new and expanded emergency department;
- An immediate $1 million capital investment; and
- A $500,000 contribution over three years to support community health programs.
The two organizations hope to complete the affiliation by Jan. 1, 2015, officials said.
Norman said in looking for an appropriate affiliation partner, McCullough-Hyde was seeking a larger health system with a reputation for excellence and quality care, as well as one that would “culturally be a good fit.”
John Prout, president and chief executive officer at TriHealth, said he’s excited for what this partnership will mean for residents of Oxford, southwest Ohio and southeast Indiana.
“This announcement mirrors a trend among hospitals and health care systems,” Prout said. “Quality health care is realized through seamless, specialized services through many locations and working with physicians and other caregivers and many myriads of health care working together with hospitals and nursing homes to improve the care of the community.”
TriHealth will have a 60 percent membership interest in the hospital, while the McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital Trust will retain 40 percent membership interest. Composition of the hospital’s board of directors will reflect this structure, according to the joint statement Wednesday.
As part of the affiliation, McCullough-Hyde would remain a non-profit, tax-exempt organization; continue to have important local input on governance and strategic decisions; and have no changes on the senior management level.
As well, all contributions to the McCullough-Hyde Trust — past, present and future — will remain for the exclusive benefit of the Oxford hospital, according to officials. The hospital’s name, mission and commitment to charity care would also stay intact.
Bryan Hehemann, chief executive officer at McCullough-Hyde, said the hospital will be “strengthened by TriHealth’s expertise and resources,” and the partnership would maintain the hospital’s “culture of compassionate care.”
“I’ve been in health care for more than 34 years and I’ve never seen greater change in our industry than we face today,” Hehemann said, who added he’s grateful the hospital’s board was proactive in ensuring success for decades to come.
Those challenges include the need for a clinically-integrated network; new information technology; new strategies to deal with declining reimbursements and declining patient volumes; and changes in marketplace with greater consumer choice, according to Hehemann.
“We think the expansion of our clinical services would be best achieved with a strong partner, someone with a regional footprint and someone with greater clinical, financial and operational resources,” Hehemann said.
The TriHealth network, which includes four hospitals, first started its expansion into Butler County in 2012 with the purchase of the former Butler County Medical Center in Hamilton.
The hospital opened Bethesda Butler Hospital at the site on Hamilton-Mason Road, and has since opened a 24-hour emergency department among other services.
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.
The network also opened a nearly 50,000-square-foot location of Group Health West Chester, a multi-specialty physicians group, last month at 8040 Princeton Glendale Road.
“Our operation is growing significantly in Butler County,” Prout said. “Oxford is its own service area that has its own medical community … and we have this opportunity to work together so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
TriHealth entered the Oxford market earlier this year in a contract with Miami University to manage operation of the university's student and employee health clinics. The Cincinnati health system this month also started providing oncology and hematology services for patients at McCullough-Hyde.
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