Union Hospital Reaches 1-Year Mark as a Cleveland Clinic Regional Hospital

DOVER, Ohio: One year since joining the Cleveland Clinic health system, Union Hospital has expanded its services, its medical providers and its access with plans for future expansion of services for the healthcare needs of residents of the Tuscarawas Valley.

“With the strong guidance of the leaders in the Cleveland Clinic, we have expanded access to care here at Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital and created the environment for growth of services in the future,” said Bruce James, President and CEO of Union Hospital. “While it takes time to identify, properly plan and then complete expansion, the work already has begun with the guidance of Cleveland Clinic’s professionals and experts.”

Union’s main hospital campus in Dover has undergone some changes in the past year that patients and visitors easily can recognize, such as the updated hospital name and logo, and new outdoor signs, along with an upgraded hospital website at www.unionhospital.org.

While those changes are indicators of progress, James said he is very pleased with the enhanced recruitment efforts for new physicians and other new providers for the hospital’s medical staff, a process that already has produced results.

“We recognize that we have needed to recruit new providers to our community and to expand options for care for our patients,” James said. “With the assistance of the Cleveland Clinic, we are talking to new recruits every week and opened a new primary care office in January.”

The hospital, which has primary (family) and specialty care offices located around Tuscarawas County, opened the new primary care office in New Philadelphia on Garland Dr. in the Schoenbrunn Inn and Conference Center complex, with its care team of Spencer Pinion, M.D., and two certified nurse practitioners (April Edwards and Jennifer Virag) seeing patients of all ages.

The addition over the past year of two new primary care physicians – John McMenemy, M.D., and Barbara Lohmeyer, D.O. – along with several certified nurse practitioners (CNP) led to the recent announcement by the hospital that its care teams at all of its primary care locations are now accepting new patients. Offices are located on the hospital campus at 205 Hospital Dr., in north Dover across from Buehler’s at 110 Dublin Dr.; at 155 Garland Dr. SW in New Philadelphia, at 60881 County Rd. 9 in Newcomerstown; and at 126 S. Broadway in Sugarcreek.

For more details and appointments call 330.602.0778.

In addition, in 2018, a new orthopaedic surgeon, John Idoine III, D.O., began seeing patients at the hospital’s orthopaedic and sports medicine practice at Dover. A new general surgeon and a second new orthopaedic surgeon also recently were recruited and will begin seeing patients later this summer, while a new obstetrician/gynecologist is scheduled to begin seeing patients in 2020.

One very important item that has not changed relates to insurance coverage. Union Hospital continues to accept all of the insurance plans that it previously accepted prior to becoming part of the Cleveland Clinic system, including AultCare Insurance.

“That may be the No. 1 question we still receive, whether we accept AultCare Insurance at Union Hospital. The answer is an emphatic, ‘Yes, we certainly do continue to accept AultCare Insurance,’” James said. (That includes AultCare’s PrimeTime plan, too.

Services that the hospital provided prior to the transition also continue as before, and the hospital’s 1,100 caregivers also continue to deliver care just as they did prior to the announced partnership. Union Hospital is the largest single employer in Tuscarawas County.

“It’s made for an outstanding transition because our hospital and Cleveland Clinic both feature cultures that center on care for the patient as our top priority at all times, and all decisions that need to be made, whether it’s a direct patient care decision or a business-related decision, are considered based on what is best for the patient,” James said. “We have benefited greatly from reviewing the care programs and procedures that are followed in the Cleveland Clinic system, and the Clinic also has reviewed and updated some of its models based on our operations here.”

Union Hospital primarily serves patients in all of Tuscarawas County and portions of the surrounding counties of Carroll, Coshocton, Guernsey, Holmes and Stark.

Two of the founders of the Cleveland Clinic have their roots in the Tuscarawas Valley. George Washington Crile, M.D., and William Edgar Lower, M.D., were cousins and were born and raised on farms near the hamlet of Chili in Coshocton County, just west of Tuscarawas County.

Information about Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital and all of its services available to the community is available on the hospital website at www.unionhospital.org, and on the hospital’s pages on Facebook and Twitter (@Union_Hospital).