We learned that the Butler County expansion is priority no. 1 for the Cincinnati-area hospital system, which also owns Bethesda Butler Hospital in Hamilton. Here’s what else Prout told this reporter:
Q: Why was TriHealth interested in coming to Oxford?
A: "I think TriHealth is interested in people that are providing care and (have) similar values and a similar mission of improving the health of the community."
“They went out to bid and asked for some assistance.”
“Oxford for us has not been our traditional service area, but it’s totally adjacent to our service area, so it’s not a big gap.”
“It’s a great combination of being a new part of our service area, but that’s what McCullough-Hyde will provide — that local knowledge, that local history of how patients want to be served.”
“Together as a team we can really impact the health of the community quickly.”
Q: Talk about this northern Cincinnati market for TriHealth. How important is it to the health system but also how much effort are you putting into this northern expansion compared to other efforts?
A: "I think we're putting a lot of effort into Butler, Warren county, both areas… Warren County we've been a provider there for a long time, and Butler, it's new."
“We have always served these counties with our clinically sophisticated tertiary services … our more sophisticated clinical programs. This fits right in with how we can assist in prevention, treatment, screening, support.”
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us because we’ll be working through McCullough-Hyde together and they know this community and we’ll get to know it, but we’ll be working together and they’ll be our representative in this region.”
“We’ll be setting new goals over the next year in this region.”
“In terms of financially, it’s our top priority.”
Q: When you look at Bethesda Butler, TriHealth acquired that property outright. With this you’re affiliating with an independent hospital. How is this deal different than Bethesda Butler, and how do you balance getting the benefits of what TriHealth gets out of the deal with maintaining the independence of McCullough-Hyde?
A: "This is a little different because of the needs of this community, the history of the community and the McCullough-Hyde trust."
“We’re doing a joint venture where we’re the majority partner, but they’re still involved in the board, so we have a 60-40 percent relationship and we’re the managing partner, which is what they wanted… to take advantage of the scale and expertise and IT.”
“… the governance is still shared in a 60-40 way to make sure the community gets represented, and the McCullough-Hyde heritage is represented going forward.”
“This is what McCullough-Hyde wanted and what we did at Butler County was what the physician owners wanted and they’re both going to work out great.”
“We don’t have one size fits all.”
Q: Talk about the competition between the convergence of Cincinnati and Dayton in the health care world.
A: "I think there is more competition and the merging of the health care competitive landscape in Butler and Warren county, but I think that's happening in other areas in retail, and restaurants and hotels and others. I think health care is visible and it's reflective of the importance of these two counties and where the growth is."
“Part of this is… it’s been growing rapidly and there’s a new opportunity to improve the care in the community together even though there’s been some traditional long-standing hospitals that exist. It’s still an opportunity to design the future delivery of health care rather than redesign the past with big buildings.”
“I think a lot of the investment on all the systems is more future-oriented towards ambulatory, towards more user-friendly, patient-friendly, technology-friendly.”
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