The best in health care is only minutes away up North

When it comes to convenient access to world-class care, the residents of Cincinnati’s northern suburbs have five major health care organizations with multiple facilities in the area. UC Health, Kettering Health Network, Premier Health, TriHealth and Mercy Health all have major facilities and campuses there.

UC Health brings the region’s top clinicians and researchers to provide world-class care to the Cincinnati community from its flagship University of Cincinnati Medical Center in the city to its state-of-the-art West Chester Hospital up north. Backed by the academic strength of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, UC Health is recognized as one of the nation’s top 25 public research universities and is considered at the forefront of how discovery-driven care is delivered.

But it’s far from alone in terms of the quality of care it delivers to residents of the northern suburbs. Kettering Health Network’s Fort Hamilton Hospital serves folks from Cincinnati and the North, including people from Fairfield, Oxford and Middletown. The hospital, which celebrated its 90th anniversary last year, offers a wide continuum of care, including maternity, emergency and advanced wound care services as well as a wide range of outpatient services.

Like Kettering, Premier Health is also heavily invested in the northern suburbs.

“Premier Health is able to manage complex care and routine care at locations throughout Butler and Warren counties,” says Dr. Keith Bricking, president of Atrium Medical Center in Middletown. “Atrium Medical Center, recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best Hospitals, is Warren County’s only full-service hospital and the only Level III Trauma Center and Primary Stroke Center in Warren County.

“In addition, Premier Health operates primary care hubs and outpatient sites in Liberty Township, Monroe, Middletown, Trenton, Lebanon, Franklin and Mason. We also have a surgery center in Middletown that is separate from the hospital and has four operating rooms.”

Other major health care organizations see the northern suburbs as an important and growing part of their overall business.

“The northern suburbs are growing at the fastest rate and are important to all the health systems serving those areas,” says John Ward, senior vice president, regional operations for the Bethesda North Region. “TriHealth has made a commitment to meet patients where they are and decrease the time it takes them to get to the right provider.

“TriHealth offers a full range of medical specialties throughout the system,” adds Ward, who estimates that the northern suburbs generate about 40% of TriHealth’s overall business.

Mercy Health’s locations draw patients very heavily from the northern suburbs as well, according to Nanette Bentley, public relations director for the Mid-American Group, Bon Secours Mercy Health.

“Mercy Health prides itself on providing quality care close to home. These locations make it easy for residents of Cincinnati’s northern suburbs to access quality care,” she says. “Cincinnati’s northern suburbs are home to a diverse community, including large Bhutanese and Hispanic populations and a sizable group of college students. Our patients span the spectrum of nationalities, income, age and more and we’ve seen the pandemic affect who is coming in for care, as well.”

Mercy Health has five major hospitals in the Cincinnati area, which surround the city in a ring from east to west. It starts with West Hospital in Monfort Heights to the Jewish Hospital on East Galbraith Road directly north of the city. To the east there’s Anderson Hospital on State Road and farther east Clermont Hospital in Batavia. Mercy Health’s Fairfield Hospital is up north in Butler County. All this in addition to many other ancillary health care facilities located throughout the northern suburbs.

While Mercy Health has an impressive list of facilities that cater to the denizens of the north, other health care organizations are also there, especially when it comes to specialized care.

“A particular emphasis has been made on offering top-notch cardiac and cancer care to northern residents,” Ward says. “Bethesda North has been designated the heart hospital, concentrating top cardiologists and surgeons in a location to provide a wide range of cardiac procedures. In addition, TriHealth opened the Harold and Eugenia Thomas Comprehensive Care Center, growing the Bethesda North campus to provide patients a one-stop destination for the latest in patient-centered cancer and heart care and treatments, provided by physicians in multiple specialties.”

The Atrium Senior Emergency Center in Middletown was the first in the Cincinnati region to receive accreditation, recognizing the excellent care the facility provides for older adults. The eight-bed unit within the Emergency Trauma Center at Atrium has safety features for older adults meant to make the hospital visit more comfortable and less intimidating.

“The specially trained Senior Emergency Center team at Atrium is not only improving outcomes for seniors during a medical crisis, but also helping to reduce readmission rates with a continuum of care that includes follow-up monitoring and coordination,” says Bricking.

Atrium’s Natural Beginnings birth center is the only natural birth center in the Cincinnati area, providing expecting mothers a labor option without traditional interventions. Natural Beginnings works with midwives to provide water births or natural birthing in a private, home-like setting, but there’s also the safety net of emergency equipment and the organization’s outstanding hospital personnel just steps away.

“It’s truly rare for a comparatively small community like Middletown to have the broad spectrum of advanced cardiovascular services that Atrium provides,” says Bricking. “U.S. News & World Report ranked Atrium as high performing in the treatment of congestive heart failure. Atrium has a full-service cardiac program and is an accredited chest pain center and Primary Stroke Center. “

With inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, patients can get comprehensive and personalized therapy plans without the hassle of traveling to Cincinnati or Dayton, Bricking adds. Atrium’s wound care center and hyperbaric services also are nationally recognized. These services often prevent amputations and help patients return to active lives.

“Again, it’s a great asset to patients to have this type of care in their community,” says Bricking. “Premier Health places a great deal of value in providing the right services close to home so patients and their families don’t have to travel outside of the region.”