UMA signs management agreement with OhioHealth

Nelsonville hospital CEO takes on double duty
 

January 9, 2009
 

OhioHealth and University Medical Associates (UMA) signed an executive management services agreement creating a new partnership to benefit residents of Southeastern Ohio.

Steve Swart, president of OhioHealth’s Doctors Hospital of Nelsonville, will now also serve as chief executive director of UMA, Ohio University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine’s faculty practice.

“This new partnership means UMA and OhioHealth will be working even more closely together to make sure we have the best health care for everyone in our area.”

Patients of UMA now will have enhanced access to advanced health care technologies, physicians and services of OhioHealth’s Riverside Methodist, Doctors and Grant Hospitals, Swart said.

Given the sophistication and cost of health care, we realize that some of the highly specialized and high tech care needs to be provided in places where they give that care on a routine basis. That’s where the link with OhioHealth becomes so critical,” Swart said.

The teaching and research expertise of the UMA physicians combined with technology and services provided by OhioHealth sites will benefit patients in Southeastern Ohio, Swart said. For example, by utilizing OhioHealth’s electronic medical record technology, UMA patients will experience seamless access to services offered at the Columbus hospitals.

“This new arrangement makes a lot of sense given OhioHealth’s strong partnership with OU-HCOM,” Swart said. “Doctors Hospital and other OhioHealth care facilities have long served as training sites for OU-HCOM students. UMA physicians are key to the OU-HCOM educational process, and this now provides an even stronger link between the physicians, students and hospitals.”

One of Swart’s priorities will be recruiting and retaining the best physicians in Southeastern Ohio. As the primary administrative leader for both Doctors Hospital and UMA, he also will be working jointly with physicians to help coordinate programs and services to provide comprehensive, quality care for patients.

OhioHealth Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer Michael Bernstein said his organization is excited about the new partnership.

 “We’ve been an active member of the Nelsonville and Athens community for more than 10 years. Not only do we have a hospital in Nelsonville, we also have affiliate relationships with O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens and Hocking Valley Community Hospital in Logan. It is a natural next step in our commitment to providing accessible, high-quality health care to the region,” Bernstein said.

UMA physicians have offices in Parks Hall on the Ohio University campus, including after-hour and weekend Express Care, and offices in the Castrop and Cornwell Centers on the O’Bleness campus in Athens. The practice also operates offices in Nelsonville, Albany, Coolville and Belpre.

OhioHealth is a family of not-for-profit, faith-based hospitals and health care organizations serving patients in central Ohio since 1891, and Southeastern Ohio since 1993 when Doctors Hospital Nelsonville, formerly St. Mary Hospital, joined OhioHealth.