NEW PHILADELPHIA (Tusco TV) - Area business leaders are getting up to speed on the impact of a 2018 merger that brought Union Hospital into the Cleveland Clinic healthcare system.   

Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital officials gave an update on the arrangement Monday during a Tuscarawas County Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Hospital CEO Bruce James says they felt like Cleveland Clinic was the right ‘dance partner’ because they shared Union’s commitment to care and strategic vision. 

"We have always wanted to grow things, and the clinic had a vision of what they wanted to do, and then we also needed to get physicians to make that goal happen, and the Cleveland Clinic brand will help you attract physicians," he says. 

Cleveland Clinic Health System President Dr. Edmund Sabanegh says they consider Tuscarawas County a growth area. 

"We regard it as an area where we need to get more docs, we need to get more services. We’re working very hard, for instance, on the heart health service line. We want to grow that. It’s a need in all communities, and we believe it’s a need here," he says.

James says it’s been a great partnership so far, even though the integration process is still in the early stages.   

"It’s been a wonderful relationship. We started April 1st last year in 2018, so we’re about a year and a half into it. The integration process is a lengthy process. It’ll probably take a full five years before you get everything in there but it’s been very good, very smooth. I’m looking forward to it with all of the exciting things I think we’re gonna bring to Tuscarawas County," he says.

James says the hospital’s recent recruitment efforts have already brought a new general surgeon on board, with a new psychiatrist joining them in October, one orthopedic surgeon set to start next month and another on January 1st. He says they’ve also been supplementing the need for more primary care physicians with the addition of around a dozen nurse practitioners. 

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