Journal-News.com

Partnerships are key in campus concept
of health care

Miami Valley South is strictly an outpatient facility — there are no beds — with a 24/7 emergency department. “In the spring we will have outpatient surgery and physicians offices — they are moving their practices to the campus,” Thickel continued. “So you could go to your doctor’s office and he might suggest a particular test and you could have the tests done right there.”

MV South offers complete diagnostic and testing services as well as a breast center with digital mammography.

Atrium Medical Center will also be user-friendly with all private rooms, flat-screen televisions, wireless Internet, room-service meals and 24-hour visiting but the new campus goes far beyond just a replacement hospital for the aging Middletown Regional Hospital. It is instead a concept totally unique to southwestern Ohio and beyond.

“What differentiates the campus is the partnerships,” said Douglas McNeill, president and CEO of Atrium. “We are sharing resources, people, programming, facilities and technology —and even capital.

“There is not another campus like this anywhere — or certainly not in Ohio,” he continued. “Take Children’s Hospital of Dayton, for example. We are integrating our clinics physically into their building. Our people are working elbow to elbow with their folks as we truly expand prenatal services, well-child programs, and immunization programs.” He added that Children’s and Warren County agencies are setting up the county’s first child-abuse center and child advocacy network.

Besides the 250-bed hospital, the Atrium campus will have an office building, cancer center, behavioral health center, an outpatient surgery center, children’s clinic and even a YMCA. “We will be moving our Middletownbased Sports Medicine to (the YMCA) — again, we are sharing programming and facilities.” In addition, Otterbein Retirement Living Communities is already constructing homes on the campus for residents.

“Then, next summer, our school partners break ground, and that is Miami University, Sinclair, Cincinnati State, Warren County Career Center and Butler Tech. They are our pipeline in terms of developing the next generation of hospital professionals who will be working there,” he said.

“Just a couple of years later, the Wright State medical school will be housing their residents (on campus). Residency programs are important because it helps develop the next generation of physicians and specialists who will be working there,” he said.

“So all these partnerships have a specific purpose and it is a true purpose. It is these characteristics that really differentiate it from other campuses.” For more information: www.miamivalleysouth.org and www.atriummedicalcenter.org