Beacon & TriHealth Develop Region’s First Orthopedic Hospital
February 4, 2019
Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, TriHealth
Reach Development Agreement to Convert TriHealth Evendale Hospital
into Region’s First Orthopedic Hospital
CINCINNATI (February 4, 2019) – Cincinnati’s top orthopedic programs – Beacon Orthopaedics & Sport Medicine and TriHealth – are coming together to create the region’s first orthopedic hospital. Through a development agreement, Beacon and TriHealth will spend the next 18 months completing the planning necessary to convert TriHealth’s Evendale Hospital – currently a multi-specialty surgical hospital – into a destination center exclusively for orthopedic inpatient and outpatient services.
The creation of a specialized orthopedic hospital:
- Provides a more consistently positive patient experience,
- Allows Beacon’s and TriHealth’s expert physicians to work collaboratively to drive innovation, share best practices and improve patient outcomes, and
- Creates efficiencies that help control the rapidly rising cost of health care.
Evendale Hospital is ideally positioned to be transitioned to an orthopedic hospital, as more than 40 percent of surgeries currently performed there are orthopedic, and the staff is expertly trained in caring for orthopedic patients. The 100,000-square-foot Evendale Hospital has 29 inpatient beds, 10 operating rooms and seven procedure rooms, with shell space for three more operating rooms; and it has been the region’s only “five-star” hospital for patient experience as measured and reported by Medicare. The hospital – located at Glendale-Milford Road and Reading Road in Evendale – also already has magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT), x-ray and fluoroscope capabilities. In addition, TriHealth is committed to making the necessary capital investments to ensure the facility is the region’s premier, state-of-the-art orthopedic hospital.
“Through this agreement, we are combining our strengths as leaders in providing efficient, cost-conscious, high-quality orthopedic care to create an inpatient facility solely dedicated to the community’s orthopedic needs,” said Peter Cha, MD, President of Beacon Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine. “While Beacon will remain an independent medical group and operate its own ambulatory surgery centers, this new orthopedic hospital will provide care to those whose needs require a hospital setting.”
Beacon and TriHealth have a long history of cooperation, and this agreement is an outgrowth of that relationship. For example, Beacon physicians routinely perform surgeries at TriHealth’s Good Samaritan Hospital, while also performing surgery and taking call at TriHealth’s Bethesda North Hospital alongside TriHealth Orthopedic and Sports Medicine (TOSI) physicians.
“This agreement is a reflection of the future of health care – creating a conveniently located center of excellence to fuel innovation, improve outcomes and drive efficiency while reserving our tertiary care centers like Good Samaritan and Bethesda North for patients with more complex needs,” said Mark C. Clement, President and CEO of TriHealth.
Beacon will continue to perform surgeries at its ambulatory surgery centers located in Sharonville and Western Hills, and will continue working with other local and regional hospitals to provide orthopaedic services to the community. TriHealth also will continue to perform orthopedic surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital and Bethesda North Hospital – both orthopedic centers of excellence –– especially when the patient needs the type of care available in a tertiary hospital.
This is not a merger, but an exclusive development agreement between TriHealth and Beacon Orthopaedics to create an orthopedic hospital. Beacon’s 26 physicians and TOSI’s surgeons and medical orthopedists will operate as separate entities, and Beacon will continue to retain privileges and perform surgery at other local facilities. Also, this agreement does not impact longstanding relationship’s TriHealth has with other orthopedic groups to perform surgeries in its hospitals and outpatient clinics.
Facilities and surgery centers within the TriHealth network have already identified for non-orthopedic physicians who currently see patients at Evendale, and they will be transitioned to new locations during the development period.