MT. ORAB, Ohio — The State of Ohio is making a historic investment into Appalachian communities to improve health care, infrastructure and workforce development. Now, the first group of approved projects has been awarded funding to make improvements to some of Ohio’s rural counties.
“It will change these communities for the good,” said HealthSource of Ohio President & CEO Kimberly Patton. “Hands down.”
HealthSource of Ohio was among the early projects approved for funding through the Appalachian Community Grant Program. The organization will receive $3.62 million to expand its health center in Mt. Orab.
Brown County lost its hospital in 2014.
“When the hospital closed, these communities lost a lot of specialty care,” Patton said. “They lost a lot of ability to have surgery done. They lost the ability to have inpatient care. For us, it's about filling as much of that gap as we possibly can.”
The money will allow HealthSource of Ohio to practically double its existing health center, increasing primary care, OBGYN and dental services on site.
“Our dental services right now can have up to a six-month wait to bring a new patient in,” Patton said. “That's just not acceptable.”
The expansion will also lead to the establishment of a job training site, which will help the facility develop its own pipeline to fill healthcare positions.
“We don't want new graduates from high school to say, ‘Well, I'm going to go to Cincinnati and get trained in Cincinnati, and then I'm going to work in Cincinnati,’” said said. “We want to give them that opportunity to be able to train where they live.”
Some residents in Brown County told us they were satisfied by their commute to medical appointments, while others told us they had to drive an hour away for certain routine appointments.
“You're supposed to go get a breast exam, I think, once a year,” said Georgetown resident Betty Sullivan. “I kind of tend to go more towards the three-year mark.”
Sullivan blamed her commute. She said increased access to health care would be “incredible.”
HealthSource of Ohio also received funding to expand a school-based health center in Loveland, as well as funds to add telehealth services for its school-based health center in Goshen.
The Adams County Ohio Valley School District also received funds from the grant program to establish a telemedicine program and mobile care program.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of other projects could be funded through the Appalachian Grant program in Ohio as more awards are announced.
