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In the business of saving lives

The job of saving lives has become big business in Butler County. And it's growing.

From brand new facilities planned for Middletown and West Chester Township to major renovations to existing medical complexes in Fairfield and Hamilton, millions of dollars are changing hands to help Butler County get a grip on the nation's multi-billion-dollar health care industry.

New economic development projects announced in 2005 are expected to create an estimated 1,505 new jobs, Butler County Department of Economic Development Director Brian Coughlin said.

Within just a few miles of each other, Health Alliance's hospital plans at University Pointe and Cincinnati Children's Hospital's plans for a campus in Liberty Township are expected to create 1,225 new jobs.

"Aside from what has already been announced, there's going to be a huge explosion of ancillary businesses on what's now called the I-75 health care corridor," Coughlin said.

Mercy Hospital Fairfield

Fairfield Economic Development Manager Greg Kathman said the Mercy Hospital expansion completed last year continues to be important to the city because of new equipment and spin-off effects.

"It's one of the major employers, one of the major tax generators for the city... not only the hospital itself, but all the related companies and offices that have been developing around the facility," Kathman said. "There are good, high-paying professional jobs, which is exactly the type of development that we want to encourage in Fairfield."

Mercy Hospital Fairfield has invested millions of dollars in renovating its main hospital as well as constructing the Heart Hospital.

But it isn't just the new construction that has attracted people to Mercy Fairfield, said spokesman Greg Ossmann.

"Obviously, there are a few things at work here. One, we're in the top 3 percent nationally of employee satisfaction. That says something about people wanting to work here. They're happy, and that flows into the way we treat patients," Ossmann said. "People have gone other places and have decided to come to Mercy."

There was a significant increase in patient visits from 2004 to 2005 in various departments. In-patient admissions grew 11.3 percent, emergency department service increased 7.3 percent, obstetrics deliveries increased 10.4 percent, out-patient lab tests increased 14.6 percent, open-heart surgery increased 9.7 percent and cardiac/cath procedures increased 18.7 percent.

The biggest increase, 166 percent, was the obstetrics clinic for the indigent population, Ossmann said.

"This shows we are consistent with our mission to serve the poor and undeserved," he said.

Ossmann said the increase in obstetric deliveries is one of the highest in the country.

"The amount of babies born is skyrocketing," Ossmann said. "There are other places in Butler County that deliver babies, but none at this growth rate."

One of the attractions for expectant parents is the top technology, including a 64 slice ST scan machine — the next evolution of the CAT scan machine.

The future for Mercy is more construction and department improvements.

A fifth-floor construction project is scheduled to begin this summer, and the fourth-floor will be renovated to add more beds by early 2007, Ossmann said. The hospital has 196 active beds.

The Joint Replacement Center of Excellence also will be a concentration for the hospital for 2006.

"As the population ages, one of the key things are (your joints). As you get older, your joints wear out."

Ossmann said the neurosurgery department will be another focus.

Fort Hamilton/Prexus

In Hamilton the rapidly growing health care industry is translating into investments of more than $25 million and nearly 400 new jobs.

The Fort Hamilton Hospital recently completed a $16 million expansion that added a two-story, 16-bed intensive care unit and outpatient diagnostic service center to its Eaton Avenue Campus.

Up to 185 new jobs are expected to be created because of the investment, hospital officials have said.

Last year Prexus Health Partners formerly Premier Healthcare Partners reopened its medical on Hamilton-Mason Road as a 32,000-square-foot, eight-bed surgery hospital. It first opened in June 2000 at half the size, as an ambulatory surgical center.

The group now encompasses an entire 22-acre campus that includes medical office buildings, a surgical center and an imaging center which is under construction. Officials there also have said plans may include the addition of sleep diagnostic complex.

All told, Prexus' investment is worth more than $15.5 million with more than 200 new jobs expected to be created.

University Pointe

The first new hospital in the area in nearly 20 years will open in West Chester Township in the summer of 2008.

The Health Alliance, an integrated health care delivery system, announced in August its plans to build a new 160-bed community hospital on 29 acres of land at University Pointe campus, located off Tylersville Road near I-75. The 370,000-square-foot hospital will have a flexible design to accommodate future expansion to 300 beds, keeping pace with community growth. When fully operational, the facility will bring over 700 new jobs to the area.

The $207 million hospital will offer a wide array of surgical, outpatient and imaging services and contain a full-service emergency department, staffed 24 hours a day.

Health Alliance Chief Executive Officer Ken Hanover said the health care facility will be high-tech, paperless and have tie-in services with the existing medical offices at University Pointe.

Large operating rooms with voice-activation, wireless technology in patient rooms and groundlevel outpatient offices are a few of the amenities patients and employees can expect.

"The entire hospital, including the design, will be as patient-friendly as possible," Hanover said.

Choosing to locate the hospital in West Chester Township was a result of the proximity to major interstates 75 and 275 and the booming population of the area.

"By the time the hospital opens, the Butler and Warren county populations will have grown more than 10 percent," Hanover said. "We are excited about the possibilities of bringing our services closer to the homes of so many people."

In January the Health Alliance named Carol King of Anderson Township chief administrator of the facility. She will also oversee the design and construction of the facility.

RTKL Architects is working on schematic designs for the hospital to be unveiled in April, King said. At that time, a community advisory board will be formed to participate in the further design of the state-of-the art facility.

"It's important to get input from the community," she said. "The focus has to be on safety and quality care for patients, and it must be convenient and close to home."

Each year will bring new possibilities in technology such as wireless capabilities and electronic medical records. Patient care advancements will be continually updated.

"Trying to design a facility around the technology of 2008 is challenging," King said, adding how exciting the opportunity is. "Nobody is getting to do this."

King has more than 25 years of health care leadership experience. She most recently served as the senior vice president of operations at Grant Medical Center in Columbus. Prior to that role, she was vice president of emergency medicine services for the Health Alliance. She has held various administration positions at Mercy Health Partners and Franciscan Health System.

King earned a master of business administration degree from Xavier University, a master of science degree in nursing administration from the University of Cincinnati and a bachelor of science degree in nursing from the College of Mount St. Joseph. She is diplomate of the American College of Health Care Executives and is certified in nursing administration advanced by the American Nurse Credentialing Center.

The Health Alliance is an integrated health care delivery system that includes The Christ Hospital, The University Hospital, The St. Luke Hospitals, The Jewish Hospital, The Fort Hamilton Hospital and the physicians of Alliance Primary Care.

Middletown Regional

Long before late February, it was clear that something was happening northeast of Ohio 122 and Union Road in Middletown.

Something big.

Steel girders were reaching higher and higher nearly every day. Cranes and construction crews were moving in and staying put. Fences were raised, as was a sign announcing a new hospital. (Progress can be seen in nearly real time, updated every 15 minutes 24 hours a day, at http://oxblue.com/client/middletownhospital/camera1/.)

The new Middletown Regional Hospital is becoming a reality.

The site selection was announced in early 2004 and ground was broken in June 2005. More than half of the construction bids tied to the new Middletown Regional have been awarded, with nearly 80 percent of those going to firms in Southwestern Ohio, the hospital said recently.

The nearly $200 million hospital will be less than a mile east of I-75, and that's no accident. Doug McNeill, the hospital's chief executive and president, has said the hospital must be closer to I-75 if it is to survive. Today, the hospital calls a 26-acre hilltop in central Middletown home.

The 750,000-square-foot hospital, located on what will be a 190-acre "health and technology" campus, likely will open in December 2007, hospital leaders have said.

Hospital officials are pointing to the construction as a "sizeable portion" of the $1.8 billion in health care-specific projects slated for Southwestern Ohio.

"Part of our ongoing commitment to the area is to use as many local and minority-owned contractors as possible during the construction of the new hospital," said John McKinney, the hospital's director of facilities management.

Local contractors include Middletown's SK Construction, Monroe's Baker Concrete Construction, Hamilton's Blankenship Masonry and others. So far, 55 percent of construction bid packages have been awarded, the hospital said.

Skanska Shook is the construction manager on the project. Seventeen bids still must be awarded, the hospital said. The hospital and Skanska Shook will finalize those bid packages — drawn by invitation only — in March.

"We are confident that the packages we have awarded include the best subcontractors," said Steve Risner, project director with Skanska Shook.

The new hospital will have 225 to 250 beds. Today's facility, comprised of eight buildings, has been in place for nearly 90 years. McNeill has said that most of those buildings will likely be razed.

Who to serve

Hamilton Economic Development Director Tim Bigler said the changing scene in Hamilton and the region — is part of larger, national trend that is redefining the health care industry.

"There are lots of things that are occurring out there in terms of whose providing what services for routine care for in-patient and out-patient procedures and how the funding is taking place," he said. "Really, the market is determining how the fall out of those services are going to be provided."

Lynn Oswald, executive director of The Fort Hamilton Hospital agreed, saying that the majority of new investment seems to be focused in the county's "fastest growing, higher income" areas.

"Sometimes we worry that this will distract attention away from the populations most in need of health care or result in the deferral of paying patients from community hospitals making it difficult to continue to provide certain types of health care services," Oswald said. "We have learned that good planning and the delivery of high quality, safe patient care help to assure the continued access to health care that this so important to our community."

The Fort Hamilton Healthcare Corporation along with other health care providers have backed non-profit health care providers such as the Butler County Community Health Consortium, which gives care to uninsured or under-insured residents.

Health care officials have said the entire community has a stake in the services provided by the BCCHC.

Uninsured and under-insured patients are most likely not to engage in preventative or routine medical care and more regularly are forced to go to emergency rooms. In many instances such patients show more severe stages of their conditions, resulting in more expensive treatments that eventually have to be subsidized by the community, health officials have said.

For every $50 it costs to provide health care to a patient at a community health center, it costs $150 to treat them in an emergency room, Oswald said.

The BCCHC, which has operations in Hamilton, Middletown and New Miami, is in the middle of a $1 million expansion.

The group is renovating the former Sears Building on Second Street in Hamilton to replace the Main Street location, allowing the BCCHC to serve upwards of 4,000 patients a year. The expansion will more than double the patient visits of the Hamilton clinic and expand the number of exam rooms from three to 12.

The expansion was made possible by a $1 million grant from Mercy Health Partners. In addition, more than $800,000 came from local contributions and a $1 million endowment was given to BCCHC by the Ernest J. Bever family of Oxford.

As health insurance premiums continue to climb, Bigler said, continued investment in the BCCHC is critical to the success of both the long standing and newly emerging health care facilities in the county.

"The consortium has received support not only from the public sector, but the private sector from groups like the Mercy Foundation and Fort Hamilton," he said. "Hopefully some of the other private providers will begin contributing, not only funds, but there services and expertise in the management of the consortium to help serves the population's needs and alleviate some of the issues we see when emergency rooms are used for routine medical service."