McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital
What: Independent hospital opened in 1957
Where: Main campus in Oxford on North Poplar Street; other locations in Oxford, Hamilton, Ross, Camden, and Brookville, Ind.
President and CEO: Bryan Hehemann
Board of Directors Chair: Richard Norman
Website: www.mhmh.org
Patient visits: 80,000 inpatient and outpatient visits annually
Patient beds: 60 licensed
Butler County’s last independent hospital announced Wednesday its intention to look into an affiliation with a larger health care system.
McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford is investigating the possibility, but is not saying it will definitely pursue a relationship.
Health care delivery is changing, and the hospital anticipates Medicare and Medicaid populations to continue to grow, the hospital said. Neither program fully covers the costs of care, the hospital said.
“We’re formalizing the process to investigate the affiliation,” said Bryan Hehemann, president and chief executive officer of the hospital. “I think the anticipation of reform and the resources relative to meeting those reform challenges, small hospitals, smaller organizations period, will have a little more difficulty maintaining the wherewithal.”
Major provisions of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act go into effect in 2014.
McCullough-Hyde opened in 1957 and is licensed for 60 patient beds. More than 500 people work at the main campus in Oxford and five outpatient facilities in Hamilton, Ross, Camden, Oxford and Brookville, Ind.
The hospital is Oxford’s second biggest employer behind Miami University, according to the city’s website.
Oxford Mayor Richard Keebler said he is confident in the hospital leaders.
“In this day and age with today’s practices with what’s going on in health care today and insurance, hospitals are having a tough time. I’m confident that the board of directors at McCullough-Hyde are doing what they think’s necessary to allow McCullough-Hyde to continue being a viable hospital in our community,” Keebler said. “But I understand independent hospitals are rare today.”
A decision could be made before the end of next year, if not sooner, Hehemann said. If the hospital chooses to affiliate with a health care system, the benefits would be an ability to buy certain equipment or to build new facilities in the future, he said.
Patient volumes and hospital revenues are flat this year compared to 2011, he said. From 2010 to 2011, the number of admissions and discharges from the hospital decreased more than six percent, according to McCullough-Hyde’s 2011 annual report. Total revenues exceeded expenses in 2011, according to the annual report.
Hospitals are nonprofit organizations.
“Our financial stability is strong,” Hehemann said. “The future expansion of Medicare and Medicaid, which pays us less than cost, is on the horizon, so we want to address that. I think most hospitals are having difficulty predicting volumes two or three years down the pike because of reform. So there is changing utilization that has to be factored into our future.”
Like other health care organizations, he said, “There’s no doubt that insurance coverages have impacted people’s use of health care services throughout the country. Higher deductibles and copays have influenced people’s decisions about elective procedures.”
When the exploratory process into an affiliation is complete, the McCullough-Hyde Board of Directors will decide whether remaining independent or not is in the best interest of the hospital and the community, the hospital said.
Hospital board chair Richard Norman said the hospital is acting, “Only because we see a changing health care landscape and we need to be prepared. Whether that means making a change like this we don’t know, we just need to understand what our options are.”
“We’re just looking for information,” said Norman, the former chief financial officer of Miami University. Norman has been a hospital board member for five years.
Healthcare systems from Cincinnati and Dayton operate the other hospitals serving the county — Middletown’s Atrium Medical Center, Fort Hamilton, Mercy Health-Fairfield, Cincinnati Children’s Liberty Campus, Hamilton’s Bethesda Butler County and West Chester Hospital.
Since Fort Hamilton Hospital joined Kettering Health Network in 2010, the new health system has made capital investments into a renovated emergency department and to buy land in Fairfield Twp., for example. Fort Hamilton’s leadership also changed to the new president Jennifer Swenson. Previously, Fort Hamilton was part the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, which had a joint-operating agreement between its member hospitals.
About the Author