The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community and Connections Season 2 Episode 12 with Trinity Health Systems

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Hello, everyone. Thank you and welcome back to Community Connections. My name is Wendy Anderson, and my co-host today is Sam. Hi, Sam. Special appearance. Special appearance. How are you? I'm good, busy, busy. I know. Talk, talk, talk. I know. A lot of talking going on. A whole bunch of talking. So I'm excited to have Laurie Lavishak from Trinity. Hello. Hi, and Dwayne Richardson. Thank you so much, guys, for coming in. Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for having me. to talk about the new hospital coming into st clairsville which just does my heart so good so let's talk about it so go ahead it's all you all right well we're excited to be here to talk about st clairesville

neighborhood hospital we're expecting the hospital to open very shortly and we're just excited to bring this community service to belmont County. Right. So the anticipated date for opening is? Well, estimated. Estimated. So we're looking at the end of July. Okay. As a date. Now, mind you, those are pending licensure and several other things that are there. As far as the hospital being complete, we're actually expecting a certificate of occupancy this Wednesday. Okay. So that's a good thing for us. That means we're good to go. And then for the next couple of months, we'll be doing a lot of testing. We're bringing in, you know, the beds and the furniture and all those other things to help monitor patients. Okay. So, so where did this

concept come? Who thought about this? So that's a great question. So I'll let Lori, speak a little bit about the history and then I'll fill in. Sure, I can take it. So back when OVMC in East Ohio Regional Hospital closed, and I believe that was 2018, Trinity really wanted to stand up care in Belmont County to allow for continuity of care, right? So we wanted to make sure that patients were taking care of. So at that time, we stood up primary care and orthopedic care and eventually cardiology care behind the Respex Clinic, right, in St. Clairsville. And we were able to give patients a bridge to their care so that they could keep seeing the same providers. We were able to employ providers so that they were not displaced due to the closure.

And then as we talked about the need in Belmont County, the administration at that time, you know, we brainstormed about what else. could we do in Belmont County? And yes, the thought of a hospital came to mind, but the question was what kind of a hospital? So health care is very vertical now. So we try not to keep people in beds very long. So it's very much in and out, right? We want to make sure people have the care they need, but they're not laying in a hospital longer than necessary. So we looked at a model, and that's the model that you now see in St. Clairsville, and it's called a neighborhood hospital. So it's a little different than a full-fledged acute care hospital. And Dwayne can talk to you about what that, what that vertical care looks like in that hospital. But just to give you kind of a rough idea of what

that hospital is, we have 10 emergency room beds, we have six inpatient beds and two ORs. So we can do outpatient surgeries. We can do triage and ship. Any patients that come in that have a lower level of care will be treated and released as far as the emergency care goes. And those that need additional care will be sent to the tertiary care facility of their choice. Okay. So, Duane, you want to take it from there and talk about the services that we are able to provide in St. Clair'sville? Sure. So in relation to the new hospital, we'll have the 10-bed ER. That actual 10-bed ER will not only be able to serve 24-7 emergency care, but we'll have a dedicated behavioral health room. We have a bariatric and GYN room with an

emergency room. Okay. We have a three-bay fast track and a two-bay trauma. Now, again, these aren't necessarily for the, you know, the traumas that you see on television, but it could be a vehicular accident. It could be a, a stemmy, which is a heart attack. It could be a stroke patient that may come. All of these services will be available to the actual hospital in itself. In addition to our healthcare providers being on staff in the ED will also have some telemetry services such as telestroak, for example. We are partnered up with Ohio State University, Wexner Medical Center for telestrokes. And so not only are you being taken care of by our physician in this.

the ER, you have a whole entire neurologic and neurosurgical team that is involved in your care as well. So we want people to be confident that if something is occurring and you need help to dial 911. 911 will take you to the nearest facility that can best take care of your needs at that time. So that's the emergency services. In relation to the actual OR and scheduled surgical services, we'll have urology, E&T, which is ear, nose and throat, will have general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and GYN surgery. And so those are five amazing brand new services that are there. And again, it doesn't stop there, but that's what we're starting with.

And definitely a reason to stay within the community so that people don't necessarily have to be shipped. If somebody happens to need a higher level of care, we will transfer that patient to the facility that can best provide those services for us. Okay. We actually have a designated landing zone with on our campus of the actual new hospital in itself. So we've already worked with Medevac. And so, yes, you will see a helicopter leaving the actual facility when we have an

emergency. We shouldn't have any patients being brought to the hospital. Most of our patients will be transferred out as well. But that's our purpose is to give quick delivery. and with quality care with a personal touch. This is a game changer for Belmont County. This is an absolute game changer. It absolutely is.

And one thing you mentioned, Lori, was in the planning stages back in 2018, and there was a lot of changes in the medical landscape. The timing of this can't, couldn't be more perfect with the change we recently just had in Belmont County with the medical landscape out there. Yeah. So you said this is a game changer for Belmont County. But, Dwayne, I had the opportunity to go through the media tour. And you pointed out a lot of the special thoughts into the little things when it came to the hospital, the larger windows, the big windows inside the patient care rooms.

All of those details. There's a lot of details that you guys put a lot of thought into when considering the building of this hospital. Absolutely. So we actually built the hospital with the patient in mind, being patient-centric. Nice. Within our emergency rooms, within Ohio Valley, these will be the only emergency rooms with natural light. We wanted that natural light to be present there for patients for healing purposes. Sure, that's so important.

And we understand that it's not only important, but again, being intentional about every single thing that we've done. Yes, this is a small micro-hospital. Everything is smaller, but we were intentional about our workflow. We were intentional about our workforce and design. So we have a lot of people who have a lot of, they're multi-skilled, if you, if you will. For example, such I am, I started in radiology. I'm also a registered nurse. We have a lot of people who will be able, be inside the facility who can do multiple things that are there.

Oh, that's great. Especially when you are, the nursing shortage that I've heard, you know. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the, I would say from my workforce development standpoint, we are poised and we feel comfortable in being able to staff the hospital adequately. We're very intentional about our selections because, again, we want to make sure that we're providing not only the great quality that is there, but basically we're treating everyone with dignity and respect and that they're meeting our mission. So it's not just hiring any nurse. We're hiring the best of the best. Nice.

Wow. The absolute best of the best. It is. And so you're, so the care that the neighborhood hospital is going to encompass would be Belmont County and anywhere in and around Belmont County, correct? That's correct. So it's not just the St. Clairisville, not just a Belmont County. it is anyone that is even potentially passing through. You know, we're next to a major highway.

Yes. So we have lots of truck drivers that are passing by, you know, the actual facility in itself. And we want to make sure that we're not only helping our local community, but anyone from surrounding communities. So that placement, was that strategic of where you place that hospital? Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So this wasn't, again, intentional. Now, mind you, when you look at the old site, a lot of people will say, you know, what about that old site? You know, we were intentional about also wanting to maintain the history of the historical brick road. That is out right outside and front. And so we actually put our own stamp on the brick road because we actually have a stamp concrete that looks like brick, but it's not brick. But we made sure that it is, incorporated into the original design of that circle-shaped brick road and the monument sign

is back out there. And so that was part of my intent. And we also wanted to make sure that we were on a major, off of a major corridor. So being off of National Road is one of those important building blocks for us. Okay. And then Dwayne, you mentioned the planning. You also planned for the future, correct? That as the needs grow of the community and the surrounding areas, that you guys are set up to grow with those needs, correct? Absolutely. So not only did we just purchase the actual land that the hospital sits on, we own 10.4 acres behind us. And so we were intentional about the actual building in itself that we could expand that building if needed. Our operating room suites, we actually built a hybrid O-R. However, there's no intervention.

radiology equipment within that space, but we built it for the future. If we want to bring cardiac calf to this community, we have the capabilities right now. We just need the actual equipment in itself. So that's a great thing because there are multiple, multiple counties within the state of Ohio who do not offer these types of services. And in the future, we're pleased to know that we can grow. Okay. So are you going to continue to utilize was the Plaza West? Oh, absolutely. You'll still utilize that area?

Yes, and we actually expect that to grow as well. We have some new services that we are hoping to bring to the St. Clairsville Plaza area. We're expanding some services there. Absolutely. And we're also looking to grow primary care because, again, we need primary care to feed into our specialty care areas. And so not only is this hospital have strong interests for Belmont County, we actually have several providers on the West Virginia side who have interest in wanting to work at a smaller hospital. And again, I would call it a boutique hospital. And as a boutique hospital,

you know, it's a, you get a little bit more one-on-one service as opposed to in a larger facility. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. Almost like a, Laura, you said this, a concierge service. Yes, we, you know, we really pride ourselves on those concierge services. And I think one thing that's important to note is that Trinity Health System is part of a larger organization, Common Spirit Health. So we're able to draw from what they've done in other areas like California, Arizona, Utah, in some of our other hospitals so that we can bring state-of-the-art, not only technology, but processes and procedures into our hospitals so that we are giving our patients the best possible care. Okay. So are you bringing in special doctors, specialized doctors for this particular neighborhood hospital? Yes, so we've already hired physicians for our surgery suite, and we're hiring more. And so as we on board more, we'll release those names after we have finalized agreements that are out there.

But we're looking every single day, and matter of fact, my phone's always ringing. for providers that are looking to actually bring their talent to St. Clairsville. And so that's a blessing. In my eyes, that's a blessing. And right out of the shoot, Dr. Fritz Bronlich, orthopedic surgeon, will be servicing the St. Clairsville area out of our St. Clairsville Hospital. Now, and then you can do orthopedic surgeries there too, correct? Correct.

So that's, to me, that's important because I don't want people to go to others. Others. Yeah, we won't mention those. Out of the area. Yes, we don't want those people to go there. We want them to know they can get quality care and quality doctors here in the

Ohio Valley. Absolutely. And I always say quality care with a personal touch. That's one of those things that a lot of people will ask me, Dwayne, what makes this facility different? And I'll say, the difference is you're not only getting quality care, because a lot of the

organization, you'll get quality care. But are you having that personal touch? Are you being treated with dignity and respect? Are is the organization meeting their mission, their vision, and their values? We are very much a mission-based organization. And again, being part of common spirit allows us to actually serve within the actual ministry. How has the community response been?

In St. Clair's been surrounding areas. It's been incredible. It's been incredible. Okay. It's been phenomenal. Great. It's been phenomenal. I can tell you that, you know, we've had open arms since, even before we broke ground, having the community just sit there and embrace us.

They already knew that we were here in providing primary care and our specialty care buildings here in the plaza. But with the aid of adding a new hospital, that was the niche that we. had to do. You know, I would say that there's potentially some, you know, consternation that, oh, is the hospital really going to be done because that was a thing of, oh, what's taking along? It's taking along. Well, it takes long to actually build a hospital. And here we are four years later, and we actually have a hospital complete today. And so the next thing is we need to open it. And then the point after that is just serving the actual community in itself. Now, the size of the hospital, again, small hospital, but again, we will adapt to the needs

of the community as we move forward. Well, I think that goes back to our society in general a little bit where we're, we have turned into a world of headlines and instant gratification. And when it comes to things like this, I always say to people, listen, there is so much that goes on behind the scenes that you and I, we have no idea. It's not, you know, it's not like, it's not the DIY network or you know, oh, what's the Home Improvement Network? The HGTV. Yeah, it doesn't go to a commercial break and then boom, a hospital's built. Right.

But this hospital, I noticed it went up so fast. Once you start, breaking ground is one thing. I get that. And I was there for that, which was really cool. But when you started construction, man, it went fast. and I know people in my circle at rotary and whatnot were talking about, did you see how fast that's going up? And it was, you blink.

Yeah. It truly was about an 18-month build from the time we broke ground until we'll pick up the keys on Wednesday. Yeah. It's about an 18-month build. I didn't expect it to be that fast. No, not at all. And we were just blessed with sunshine.

Yes. Good weather. Mild winter. Yeah, we built in a lot of rain days and we didn't have to use them. And so that was great. We actually had a large amount of construction workers from all over the country working on this project. I would say on average we didn't have any less than about 40 to 50 crew members every single day. And so that's how we were able to make it happen.

That is incredible. It takes a team. It takes a community. It does take community to build a neighborhood hospital. So now, will you have access to, like, emergency vehicles, like your volunteer fire departments, and if they have an issue, like, you know, they have an emergency call? Will they be able to, do you have an emergency entrance? Absolutely.

So we have an ambulance entrance. Actually, it's on there already, so the signage is up. Okay. For the ambulance entrance. And so anyone coming in, bring a patient to us. would come to the ambulance bay, anyone who is just a residential patient. And we have our ER entrance as well. As it relates to any transportation's out, we have agreements with other services that can

help us transport patients from here and there. Wow. Will there be on-site, like, general practitioners? Like, if I had just a regular GP appointment, are their offices going to be? there? No. So all of our actual primary care for primary care and door specialty care are in our plaza buildings. Okay. And we were strategic about that. We're trying to look at some other options for us to expand actually within the same locality. And because we definitely need more space than what we have. The hospital doesn't have any outpatient primary care offices, if you will. All.

All of those are in the plaza. But I think, I mean, I kind of like the idea of that. The separation? I do. Because you're not going to be muddled down with people going for just generic, you know, wellness checkups. It's going to be there for, you have to go there for a purpose. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And so it's not just the hospital in itself. Once we actually open up the emergency room, one week after that, we'll start our surgical procedures. And then we'll actually move into some outpatient radiations. biology. And so that's something that we've not been able to offer. We were offering screening mammography services and also regular general x-ray, but we'll actually have a higher-end x-ray component plus CAT scan. And so for the first time, Trinity Health System will be offering 64-slice CAT scan services within the actual Belmont region. Oh, that's interesting. We don't have that so that's very cool i was going to ask you do you know what that means 64 slice yeah cat scan yes all you do i do

it's like the okay i don't the slices of your body like your different angles of the vision of your interior is that right absolutely so uh within a cat think a slice in an onion each slice looks different right okay okay all right hey listen it's why i'm sitting behind a microphone and not doing anything in the medical field. So the cat, a lot of people think sometimes, you know, is there a real cat involved? And there's no cat. There's no cat involved. It's an acronym for computer axial tomography. Okay. And it's a computer that actually acquires the pictures. The axial that we go from the top of the body part and we move down and tomography is slices. And we actually take 64 slices for whatever we're examining and we take those 64 slices and we take each picture out and the radiologist examines

that. But even before they examine that, I have a software of AI artificial intelligence that will examine. And actually it's called CAD, computer aided detection. And so we actually have software to detect whether it's something negative or tumors or anything that's just not normal first before radiologist actually puts their eyes on it. So we have a lot of technology involved. So people can be assured that your images are not only being reviewed once, it's being reviewed three times prior to a final interpretation. And so that gives a little bit more relief. But those slices also get you off the table faster as well. And so I would say the average CAT scan within the United States is around a 16 slice. We find other.

bread and butter, units that have a 64 slice, but we actually have one of the most state of the art new scanners coming right here to St. Clairthville Neighborhood Hospital. And so we're excited about that. It looks really nice and it has nice colors. Dwayne, how long have you been in the medical field? I've been in the medical field for 36 years. And so started out in pediatric radiology in Philadelphia and then I became a registered nurse. Did clinical for quite some time and decided to go into management and it just kept going from there. How has, with that, with that extensive years in the medical field, can you believe or is it shocking to you how technology has changed and like what we're seeing in the future?

I mean, just AI in general is of course the big talking point right now. But is it surprising to you what all medically is out there now? No, because AI has been around for quite some time. We just didn't call it AI. Okay. I didn't know that. There's been lots of artificial intelligence that's been around, and we've been using it for ages.

Computer aided detection in women's services and mammography has been around for over 34 years. Okay? And so that technology has been out there. We just never called it AI. We've enhanced a lot of those things that are out there. But so when I say it doesn't surprise me, but I'm excited about the actual technology. and about utilizing that technology.

It not only enhances our ability to take care of patients, but it also keeps us a little bit safer. Now, mind you, we're not putting AI forefront so that we're putting everything at the hands of a computer because we always need someone to validate things and things like that. But from a technology standpoint, I'm excited about where we're going in health care,

and it's only going to get better. and we're going to see individuals living a little bit longer. We're going to see that huge shift, and I'm hoping that we'll be able to save more lives. Okay. Well, because wouldn't you say in health care, the human touch can't be replaced? Right.

The human emotion and caring can't be replaced. So that's a great question. And so, you know, my daughter is graduating high school, and she's about to go to nursing school. And a lot of the schools who try to woo her in, she got accepted into 13 different schools, and all of them talk about, you know, the technology and, oh, we have the best, you know, robots and simulators and things like that. And one of the things I brought up to the dean was that you can't take that part away,

was the human touch. No, you cannot. So we have about six minutes left. The one thing I want to ask you, and it's, I've had more friends who have suffered strokes, right? Deppilitating some of them. Some of them just, you know, just started like not as debilitating. So what is the timing that you need to go to? So if I felt that something was wrong, how long does it take for you to, you said you had tele? It's, it's a telstroke program. But the telestroak program isn't the number one primary thing.

The number one primary thing that you've recognized a onset of symptoms is to call 911. Okay. Okay. And so we use an acronym's called B-FAST. I'm not going to get into what the B-FAST is. But it sounds like what it is. In hearts, we think of time as muscle. Same thing with the actual brain itself.

So the faster that you can get to a facility, that's your best outcome, is getting. access to emergent care. Now, mind you, depending on what's happening and again, we don't know how long the stroke, if it was early on and we caught it fast enough. Sometimes we can actually ship you out so fast that we don't have to give you a fibrenolytic, which is a clot busting drug. Okay. And we can ship you out to a facility that can actually go in through an access into your radar artery, which is right here in your wrist, right up into your brain through a needle and actually suck out the clot. Okay?

And that's how fast we can do things. And sometimes if they don't suck out clot, they can actually give that same drug right there at the clot itself. If a patient has been down for a long time and you may not benefit from that direct therapy, you may be prone to us giving you a circulatory fibrenolytic, which is basically we give you the clot-busting drug and it just goes throughout your system and that will help resolve the clot. And it's such an amazing drug that I've seen patients go from being partially paralyzed

with inability to speak to now just speaking just like that within seconds. And so being able to treat patients very quickly is the thing. So 911 is your best option. That is, you know, the idea of how. having your neighborhood hospital, the Trinity neighborhood hospital, to me is amazing, because that's going to save so many people's lives. You just know it's going to happen. Because they don't have to go anywhere else. They can go right here in our neighborhood. Absolutely. So with calling 911, they will take you to the facility that can best serve your needs,

whether you're having a psychiatric crisis, whether there's substance use disorder issue, behavioral health, all those things. No, mind you, we're a small hospital, so we're going to have to deal with all of these things. Yeah. This isn't a hospital where you can have a baby. However, we know that babies just happen to show up in emergency rooms from here and there. They do, do they, don't they? That's correct.

And that's why we were intentional about putting in that one GYN room if we had to. if there was a chemical spill from our oil and our fuel, oil and gas industries around. We actually have a shower room when it comes to biohazard where we would shower someone down if they came in with a chemical emergency. And so, again, we've spoken to our fire friends, if you will, and actually it's EMS week. today, so I want to give the EMS crews a shout out for them.

But so we've thought of all the things that could possibly happen, and so we're just so excited. Well, that is the beauty of being an intentional, an intentional neighborhood hospital. So I got to say, thank you so much. Thank you, Dwayne. Thank you, Lurie. Yeah, just one more thing. If you're out there and you'd like to volunteer at our neighborhood hospital, we will have volunteer opportunities at our neighborhood hospital. Please let us know if you're interested in, you know, donating a few hours

each week. We'd love to have you come out and support the ministry in that way. That's great. We have six so far. You have six volunteers so far? We have six volunteers registered. Oh, that's wonderful. Already. Wow. Wow. Okay. Fantastic. Well, thank you, Sam, for being my co-host today. And if our listeners have questions or they want to just, you know, talk about a podcast that we just, we have done, it's OUEE Podcast at Ohio.edu. Again, that's OUEEPodcast at Ohio.edu. So for all of our guests here, my name is Wendy Anderson, and thank you so much for tuning into coffee and connections. Community and connections. Same thing.

Yes. I have coffee. You're right. Community and connections. That's her other job. That's my other job. Well, that's wrap, folks. Yeah.

Thank you.