TriHealth, a 60% owner of McCullough-Hyde Hospital for the past four years, is now taking over 100% ownership of the Oxford hospital, the two institutions announced this week.
“McCullough-Hyde is an important part of TriHealth’s strategy to provide citizens of the Tristate region the highest quality care at convenient locations and our mission to improve the health status of the people we serve,” said Mark Clement, president and CEO of TriHealth.
TriHealth is a Cincinnati-based health service network with operations that include the Good Samaritan, Bethesda North and Bethesda Butler Hospitals.
McCullough-Hyde hospital opened its doors in 1957 and has been serving the Oxford community ever since. In recent history, it cares for almost 100,000 people every year, according to the McCullough-Hyde website.
In 2015, the hospital teamed up with TriHealth to “ensure quality healthcare is available in the Oxford Community for years to come,” according to McCullough-Hyde’s 2015 annual report.
In the initial affiliation agreement, TriHealth gained a 60% interest in the hospital. Through the agreement, McCullough-Hyde was able to deliver healthcare with TriHealth’s financial backing and operational judgment.
As part of the agreement, the McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital Foundation had the option to require TriHealth to purchase the remaining 40% in the hospital. It is now exercising that option in the new deal.
“The Foundation is confident it is the right time to allow TriHealth to assume full membership interest of the Hospital,” said Alan Oak, chairman of the McCullough-Hyde Foundation Board of Trustees. “Taking this action is in the best interest of the residents and the communities in which they live and protects long-term benefits to our patients who rely on the Hospital for their healthcare.”
In the new agreement, TriHealth will put $7 million into improving McCullough-Hyde. The money will go toward maintaining the clinical services offered at the hospital as well as $4 million going to the hospital’s foundation board of trustees in order to promote its mission.
Michael Everett, the president of McCullough-Hyde, is excited for the new chapter of the hospital.
“It should be a seamless transition,” he said. “McCullough-Hyde exists solely to serve the community and having a partner like TriHealth allows us to do that.”
The McCullough-Hyde announcement came just days after Kettering Health Network, a Dayton-based competitor of TriHealth, broke ground on a $4.5 million medical center in Oxford, that will offer new specialty services and additional physicians. Everett insisted that the McCullough-Hyde/TriHealth move was going to happen regardless of whether Kettering came to town or not.
“Employees have been working towards this for the last four and a half years,” he said. “The team members have bought into the partnership and this felt like a natural evolution.”
Over the course of their partnership, TriHealth has put $21 million into making improvements at the hospital. It has expanded the specialty clinical services, upgraded the emergency department, added three surgical suites, implemented a new information technology system and recruited 15 additional doctors to the area.
Also, during that time period, McCullough-Hyde has experienced higher patient satisfaction, higher safety and quality scores, and an improved financial position, according to TriHealth.