McCullough-Hyde hospital revives public meetings with community residents

Wash said the foundation has put a quarter-million dollars into renovation of the obstetrics department, donated a building the foundation owned in College Corner to expand service there and paid $50,000 in grants to hospital team members to expand their education.

“This is a wonderful, caring place. We already had the team,” he said. “We love to be able to support our own.”

Everett praised the hard work of the hospital staff, particularly during the pandemic.

“It’s all about our teams. Our teams stepped up. We didn’t need the National Guard,” he said. “We were started due to the community. We provide charity care for those unable to afford it. We provided vaccines locally in Oxford, lots of vaccines.”

Everett was asked about expanding services and said they are always looking to add additional medical services within the community and said their whole focus is primary care in the community. He cited the addition of wound care, added in December, and said use of that service has doubled every month since. He said two new pediatricians are coming here this summer. He also cited that expansion of service to College Corner. He added a comment, however.

“It’s always hard finding physicians, especially today,” he said. “The medical field is a calling. We need to create a space people want to come to. It’s about retention.”

He cited partnerships as fostering the expansion of services, particularly that of joining with TriHealth and also partnerships with Cincinnati Children’s and Beacon Orthopedics. A big piece of that, too, is the operation of the hospital foundation, which helps fund many innovations and programs.

“Without the foundation, we probably would not be here today. Without TriHealth, we probably wouldn’t be here today,” Everett said. “We want more access points. Partnering with Beacon is meant to improve the overall service level TriHealth offers.”

Earlier in the discussion, he had said the TriHealth system provides a wide variety of services McCullough-Hyde could not manage to fund on its own, making them available to residents of the 13 zip codes served by the hospital.

Asked about the possibility of adding a geriatrician to serve the elderly, he said they have a recruitment team out there looking for personnel in various fields and that is one of those on the list.

He was also asked about the operation of the free clinic offering services to those unable to afford medical care and said it is going well and they will continue to support its operation.

Everett closed the discussion by saying they are planning an open house at the hospital with tours for the public to see the facilities. He did not have a date but just said it will be later this year.