The Future of Health Care in Miami County

Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health is Selling off Spring Meade

On October 17th, the Board of County Commissioners met with legal counsel to talk about Warren County issuance of Tax Exempt Bonds for Otterbein SeniorLife to purchase the Sping Meade retirement community, currently owned by Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health.

Spring Meade was constructed in 1992 as a nursing and rehabilitation facility and has grown into a retirement community. In 2018, a new rehabilitation unit was completed, along with a remodel of existing rehab rooms and the facility now offers 114 beds for various levels of care, including long-term care, skilled rehabilitation, respite care, and a dedicated memory care unit. The facility also has a number of two and three bedroom homes for retired families.

Why is the County Involved?

Thanks to the complexities in both state law and federal regulations, the Board of County Commissioners needed to give their blessing to this financing mechanism, since it involved the sale of an asset that is owned by a “public hospital”, as Upper Valley Medical Center is, by state law. And while the County Commissioners gave their approval to the bond issuance, it is terribly important to note that county taxpayers are not liable for any of the debt incurred by Otterbein SeniorLife for this bond issuance. In other words, the County simply needed to sign off on the debt and not be put on the hook for it.

Otterbein SeniorLife owns over a dozen retirement homes and communities throughout the State of Ohio, and their state corporate offices are located in Lebanon. Since around 2022, Otterbein SeniorLife has actually operated the Spring Meade facility, and they are looking to purchase the property from Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health with a closing date of December 1st. While the final purchase was not disclosed to the County Commissioners, the bond issuance by Otterbein SeniorLife is expected to be in the $14 to $15 Million range.

The Cyclical Nature of Health Care in Miami County

Anyone with any working knowledge of the history of the county will remember the times when there were three hospitals within in Miami County. The Piqua Memorial Medical Center served Piqua, Stouder Memorial Hospital was in Troy and Dettmer Hospital was located between the two.

The three hospitals consolidated in 1986 and the Dettmer campus was slowly phased out as services were sent to Stouder and Piqua Memorial; it should be noted that Dettmer still had a strong mental health unit. Things came to a head in the late 1990s, when efforts were undertaken to consolidate the remaining hospitals into an expanded Dettmer campus and the eventual shuttering of both Piqua Memorial and Stouder.

Arguments ensued, residents were mobilized and in 1998, the Upper Valley Medical Center finally built a new hospital, touting that the new location would provide better economies of scale and a better patient experience. Ten years later, in 2008, Upper Valley Medical Center and Premier Health entered into an operating agreement that put the local hospital under the Premier Health banner.

Things remained fairly stable until 2019. At that time, Kettering Health Network, provided a new hospital in Troy and a year later, the same entity built a new facility in Piqua. The two new hospitals, were the first ones built in those communities in a generation.

Throughout the years, time has shown that the provision of health care services in the county ebb and flow, and it may be that we are in a time of declining or consolidating services.

Questions on the Future of Health Care

Spring Meade has over a 30-year history of serving the community. And that isn’t changing; selling the facility off to Otterbein SeniorLife, a company that has a history of leading and managing senior health facilities, may very well be a net positive for all involved. In fact, Otterbein SeniorLife has been helping manage the Spring Meade facility for a few years now.

However, a change of ownership makes one think about services that the Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health may be selling off in the future. This move by Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health feels likes another casting off of a critical service that they have provided, this time, hitting those that are traditionally older and possibly at the end of their life.

Readers of our newsletter may remember earlier this year when this publication talked at length about the decision by Upper Valley Medical Center/Premier Health to shutter their labor and delivery unit at the hospital. Citing rising costs and the inability to recruit talent, the hospital decided it was in their best interest to close the facility. This left expecting parents in a bit of a bind, having to look out of the county to either health care providers in Dayton or Sidney for the critical health care services they need for themselves and their newborns.

Where Do We Go From Here?

One of the challenges that Premier Health and Kettering Health Network both provide to our community is that sometimes the decisions made outside of Miami County are impacting the over 100,000 residents that live here. And that often puts our residents in a tough spot. Losing critical services for young families and now seeing assets sold off for our seniors have some here worried about what is next for health care in Miami County. Upper Valley Medical Center and Premier Health have been good neighbors for Miami County; here is hoping that they continue to be for many more years.

What Do You Think?

How do you feel about health care in our community? What do you think about Spring Meade being sold? Our paid subscribers are more than welcome to leave their ideas and insights in the comment thread! Your contributions are always welcome!

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