New partnerships bring more health care options to Oxford

In the year after new partnership agreements were reached between health systems and health providers in Oxford, more services are opening to the community.

Nonprofit doctor and hospital group Mercy Health is collaborating with Miami University on health-related academic programs, sports medicine services and Mercy Health is helping fund construction of a new student-athlete sports medicine and rehabilitation center, according to the organizations.

After Cincinnati-area system TriHealth sealed last year an affiliation agreement with McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, renovations have begun on an expansion of the Oxford hospital's emergency department.

Additionally, nonprofit Primary Health Solutions has established a new presence in western Butler County with the recent opening of a community health center on North Locust Street, said Alan Kyger, the city’s economic development director.

“We are seeing a change in health care in Oxford with the alliances,” Kyger said. “I think with TriHealth and with Mercy coming in and providing an umbrella for our health care in the community, it’s going to bring more experience, more options.”

Mercy Health has opened two new medical office locations in Oxford.

The first was a relocation of a Mercy Health Physician practice from the McCullough-Hyde campus, according to Mercy Health spokeswoman Nanette Bentley. The orthopaedic surgery practice of Drs. Ronald Hess and Brian Rottinghaus opened a new office at the end of 2015 at 270 S. Locust St. Sports medicine specialist Dr. Edward Marcheschi will also practice from the new Locust Street location.

The second new site is an outpatient physical therapy facility at 421 S. Locust Street in the Bishop Square development, Bentley said.

“The new location in Oxford makes it more convenient for patients needing therapy living in and around Oxford, to access those services,” she said.

TriHealth and McCullough-Hyde Memorial opened to the public this month a new urgent care service at 5151 Morning Sun Road. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, according to the hospital.

“Our decision to add urgent care in Oxford and Ross was made in order to provide additional high-quality access for patients as well as students. Weekends often make it difficult to see an appropriate medical professional if one is sick or has a sports injury. That will no longer be the case with the addition of the urgent care locations,” TriHealth spokesman Joe Kelley said in an email.

Meanwhile, construction work underway will expand McCullough-Hyde Memorial's emergency department on Poplar Street from about 7,000-square-feet to about 15,000-square-feet. Most of the space will be converted from existing floor plans, but about 3,000-square-feet of new building will be added, hospital President and Chief Executive Officer Bryan Hehemann previously told Journal-News.

After the new emergency department opens this year, the next phase of the construction project will see renovations of surgery suites including an additional suite to be added for four total operating rooms planned to open in 2017, Hehemann said.

Primary Health Solutions was awarded last year a more than $400,000 grant from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to open a health center at 10 N. Locust St. in Oxford.

Primary Health offers services on a sliding fee scale; the amount patients pay for services depend on their income and household size. Even though Primary Health receives funding to provide care to the uninsured, anyone can use its services including people who have no insurance, commercial insurance or government-backed insurance (Medicaid and Medicare).

"The center will give people access to care who didn't have it," Marc Bellisario, chief executive officer of Primary Health, told Journal-News when plans to open the center were announced last year.

About the Author