Amanda Wilde (Host): Memorial Health System is on a mission to create a world-class hospital dedicated to women and children. Memorial Health Foundation's Together Campaign is the key to making that vision a reality. On this episode, we're joined by Executive Director of Memorial Health Foundation, Jarrett Stull, and Together Campaign co-chairs, Leah Breece and Dr. Dan Breece, Vice President of Physician Services and Chief Medical Officer at Memorial Health System.

This is Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System. I'm Amanda Wilde. Welcome to you all. Thank you so much for being here. Jarrett, this campaign is one of the most ambitious initiatives undertaken by the Memorial Health Foundation, of which you are Executive Director. What are the key priorities of the Together Campaign?

Jarrett Stull: Well, thank you, Amanda, for having us. I'm looking forward to the conversation today. The Together Campaign is a comprehensive effort to highlight the charitable needs of our patients in the region that we serve, and we identified a couple years ago some of the priorities that we needed to help solve in our community. And the hallmark, I would say, of our campaign is building the first ever women and children's hospital in southeast Ohio, and this is going to really help close the care gaps for women and pediatric care throughout our region, and we're going to come back to that and share some details during this conversation about the impact of the women's and children's.

But our other two priorities that are very important our health system in our community is our endowment, and we want to continue to grow the endowment which is stewarded by the board of trustees and it allows the health system to leverage additional funding that ensures we have the best facilities and that we can bring the new service lines to our area. And basically, in short, it is the more that we can grow our endowment through private support and market gains, the more we're able to offer our community in terms of enhancing healthcare services here.

And our Memorial Health Fund, which we think of as our annual fund, it's a crucial fund to this community. It's made up approximately 30 funds that are direct care patient funds. So, we're directly assisting patients with financial support or needs for equipment that they may need at home to further recover. And we have a whole host of funds that make up our annual fund, our Memorial Health Fund, all the way from things from cancer care to bariatric services, even to our newest fund, helping ensure that patients, when they don't have anyone else to care for their pets, when they need to be in the hospital, that we can help get them boarded and pay for that if they need to, so they get the care they need and stay in the hospital the length of time that they need to do so. So, this campaign is truly comprehensive. It touches all areas of our health system. It's the largest campaign that this health system has embarked on and the momentum in the community is so large, and I look forward to talking more about this as we proceed today.

Host: Well, it sounds like there have been a lot of very thoughtful conversations about the fundraising structure for this campaign and how to support the fund. You've been in a silent phase of the campaign, but now you're at the public launch. Dr. Breece, where are we right now as far as the campaign and how far along it is?

Dr. Dan Breece: Well, Amanda, thank you so much again for having us today and hosting us. We are truly, truly excited about where we are in this campaign. And as you said, for the past two years, we have been in what is known as a silent phase of the campaign, where we were really just sharing the significance and transformational impact of what this campaign will accomplish while seeking funding commitments from those supporters that have been closest to our organization for many decades.

Now, we have the opportunity to be a little louder and we are in our public phase of the campaign, and this will continue for the next two to three years. You know, with the guidance and support of a tremendous steering committee for this campaign and Foundation Board of Trustees, we announced a very ambitious $50-million campaign. The goal is made up of a $30-million gift from the state of Ohio. And I want to take this opportunity to thank the governor of Ohio, Governor DeWine, as well as State Representative Jay Edwards. They were truly instrumental in helping us secure this $30-million gift from the state of Ohio, but it also comprises a $20-million portion, which is made up of private philanthropic support. We are thrilled today to share that we have secured 74% of that goal, or $37 million, but it does leave us with $13 million that we need to raise. And we want to get that awareness out during this public phase so that we don't only achieve that goal, but we surpass that goal. So we can truly bring world class healthcare for women and children to the Mid-Ohio Valley and this region of Appalachia.

Host: So, this has been a long and forward-looking and very successful campaign so far. I mean, you are most of the way there. I'm curious though, Dr. Breece, you were already VP of Physician Services and Chief Medical Officer. You probably didn't need to add this to your plate. And your wife, Leah, and you are co-chairs of this Together Campaign. What inspired your decision to lead this campaign? Leah, will you start? And then, Dr. Breece?

Leah Breece: Absolutely. Hello, thank you again for having us. First, it was a great opportunity to work with my husband. And also, as a nurse and a mother of our two beautiful children, I know firsthand how important excellent local healthcare is. I decided to do this because I want the people of the Mid-Ohio Valley to have exceptional healthcare right here at home. This is a very exciting historical event, so this is what inspired me to be a part of the first Women and Children's Hospital in Southeast Ohio.

Dr. Dan Breece: You know, Amanda, if I may jump in this was an easy decision for both Leah and I. I work here at the hospital every day, and Leah does not work for Memorial Health System, but she lives the dream through me. We've been here for 14 years in the Mid-Ohio Valley. This is our home. Leah's parents moved up here with us. We have children. We are rooted in this community, and we use the healthcare in this community. All of us do. It is so important to continue to bring exceptional care to everyone here in the Mid-Ohio Valley and beyond. It's not only important, it's what this community deserves.

And so, when we talked about it that way, and we were asked to be a part of this, we were truly honored to have that ask of us and it's a privilege. It's a privilege to co-chair this campaign with such a wonderful campaign-steering committee and to work alongside with my wife, as she said, as well as Jarrett Stull, who's an exceptional Executive Director of the Memorial Health Foundation.

Leah Breece: Absolutely.

Jarrett Stull: And Amanda, this is Jarrett. I just wanted to add to that, you know, when we're selecting campaign leadership, the chairs of the campaign and the steering committee, this is something that is vetted through a lot of our closest donors. And Dr. Breece and Leah's name kept rising to the top over and over. And a lot of the conversations that we were having and with our fundraising consultants. And so, it became very clear that they were absolutely the right couple to lead this campaign, this very historic campaign. And so, we are just delighted that they stepped up to do that. Knowing everything on Dr. Breece's plate, he has both have been fully dedicated to the silent phase of the campaign thus far, now into our public phase.

Host: Well, Dr. Breece, how do you envision the specific impact of the new women and children's hospital in Southeast Ohio?

Dr. Dan Breece: Well, this region really hasn't made any investments, no health system in this region has made any investments that have been impactful for women's in pediatric care probably for several decades to be quite honest. And when I say that, it's with a heavy heart because the women and the pediatric population of this region deserve better. They should expect more, and we recognize that. We said we need to fill this void for this community. And we have been delivering babies here in this community for decades. This hospital's been around for almost a hundred years or longer, but we know we can do it better. We know we're geographically challenged, and that's kind of where our conversation started.

When women need certain types of healthcare, or kids need certain types of healthcare, frequently, we can only provide that care to a certain level before we have to consider transferring them to another area. And when I say that another geographical area, it's about two hours away. It's a major disruption for that patient and for that family. It's overwhelming, and that's not right. We should and we are able to deliver that care here locally.

So, the impact of this centers around women and children, and there have been certain things that we've been able to do right away. So, let me start with in January of this year, we opened a pediatric emergency department, which is staffed by pediatric fellow-trained emergency medicine physicians. That's open every day, 365 days a year. And we're super excited about that, because we were able to do that before we actually were building the Women's and Children's Hospital. Now, we have a partnership with Akron Children's Hospital. They're a wonderful, very well respected children's hospital. And they help augment and inspire everything we do with patient care when it comes to pediatrics. That's why we were able to start with the Pediatric Emergency Department. And in partnership with them and the Women's and Children's Hospital, we then said, "Why would we not go even further with that?"

And so, the impact between the two of us, when we bring this women's and children's center to life, and it truly gets that breath, that's when the magic really starts to come together because, right now, we will be able to take care of women who may have had to go two hours away to deliver their babies because they could have had complications or they may be premature. This facility will have a level II nursery inside of it. It means that we can deliver more babies here locally, keep them here, not disrupt those patients and their lives and their families lives. We will give women what they deserve, which is an exceptional birthing experience. There'll be multiple options to choose from for women, and they won't have to look elsewhere or go down the road or to wherever else they thought they had to to deliver those babies.

We will be moving all of our surgical services for gynecology down to this campus so we can really, truly consolidate all the care that we deliver down there as well. And we will also be looking at addressing other needs in this community that unfortunately we have a high incidence of. So, we'll be looking at behavioral health in the pediatric population and partnering with Akron Children's to really develop programs and service lines that don't exist today locally so we can take care of those pediatric patients right here close to home. We'll also be able to take care of pediatric patients in an observation type status. So, today, when pediatric patients have to be admitted to the hospital, often they have to go two hours away for whatever that admission is. Now, we'll be able to keep a subset of that population here locally. And that's very important. That's important, again, for not only patients, but they're families, so they don't have to be disrupted and go so far away.

So, the impact is huge. I could talk about it all day. I'm super excited about it. Again, was such an easy decision for me to be involved with the campaign and see what it will mean to this community for many decades to come, long after I'm retired.

Host: Right, it's going to be sustainable, and that's an important point. The impact is huge for the community. But to make it happen in this phase, why is community involvement essential? Jarrett, can you answer that?

Jarrett Stull: Absolutely. I often talk to people, too, about the whole impact of this project is so significant that I think back to our history of from the early 1900s when our Chamber of Commerce came together to say we need a hospital and got the community together to fund what is now Marietta Memorial Hospital. I don't know that there has been another transformational impact like that that's going to really change the course of healthcare here except for the Women's and Children's Hospital. And so, the community coming together to do this is critical. It has clearly shown the state of Ohio that the community needs and this and they're willing to putt their own money behind this. And we know that people want to be part of this, they want to know that them or their families were part of this historic time to bring the first ever Women's and Children's Hospital to Southeast Ohio.

Host: Yeah, because you'll be providing services that just weren't even there in the community and really bringing it into the 21st century and the community working together to raise all boats.

Jarrett Stull: That's exactly right. And Dr. Breece mentioned earlier about the traveling two hours away to access some of that care. Our number one request in our foundation is help with transportation, whether that's to come to appointments that are here locally or the need to have to travel away. Transportation is a very serious concern for many in our region. And by having these new services, that's going to eliminate a lot of those pain points for our region, and to really ensure people are getting the care they need because we know there are people not getting the care they need because they can't travel as far as they need to or as often as they need to for that care.

Host: Which is a tragedy. So in terms of community involvement, how does that happen? Are there community events or gatherings planned to promote the Together Campaign? How do community members get involved?

Jarrett Stull: Yeah. So, there's lots of ways that community gets involved. Just on October 8th this year, we launched publicly the campaign and started to tell everyone about the campaign, the significance of that, and the many donors and leaders in the community, that during the silent phase have already come forward to show their support. And so, as we move forward over the, next couple of years, through all of the events, that we currently do and through new events that we'll have, we will most definitely be highlighting the campaign, the impact that it's going to have for everyone in this community. And it's a way for people to really get behind their local healthcare organization, whether they have needed services or know someone that's needed the services, or they just know that they may need services in the future, that they're helping bring that about. And we have one of our trustees, Colleen Cook, who's been on our board many years, who often says if we don't have our health, what do we have? And I think that resonates with a lot of people when we talk about that, that that's really the starting of everything from a strong economy, other businesses wanting to look to come here, to just ensuring that when you do need the care, you've got world-class care right here.

Host: For those businesses that are already there, how can local businesses engage or support the initiatives of the Together Campaign?

Jarrett Stull: Absolutely. There's different ways, you know, in terms of their level of support that they may want to give from through corporate gifts or corporate sponsorships. We know some of our local businesses, they want to be part of it to the extent that they want their name in the building and to have those naming opportunities that they're permanently part of Women's and Children's Hospital. And they can reach out to us to have more of those discussions to really see what the impact is going to be. And for us to talk about what's important to those that are on their teams. We have some local organizations that have come to us to express that they have employees that are having to really make hard decisions about visiting their family in Columbus or Cleveland or Morgantown because that's where maybe their new baby is or mom is, but trying to balance work and other kids and they're really starting see how this is going to even change that dynamic for them, you know, at their level their own company.

Host: Yeah, it's truly transformational for this community. Dr. Breece, what message do you want to leave with our listeners about the importance of this kind of healthcare availability in our own community?

Dr. Dan Breece: Well, I appreciate that. I mean, I want to just say that, this has been such a rewarding opportunity just to be part of all of this, as I said earlier. But this region deserves world-class healthcare. And this region deserves the same care here locally that they would have to travel two hours away from. There's no reason that any person living here should expect anything less. Thank you very much. So, it's our mission as a health system to go deliver that care to this community.

Now, that being said, I'll tell you that healthcare is a tough game. It's one that operates every day. And, unfortunately in the United States, you see hospitals close, and you see systems have to align with other systems, et cetera. We operate on a thin margin, and many of the things we do, we can't do without the support of the local community and businesses. It's impactful. Just as we partner with the same businesses in this community, as well as the, different community members, this is something that we have to do together, which is reflected in the title. It's a Together Campaign. So, I really ask for the continued support of this community, as well as the businesses. We can't do it without them. But we can do it together, and that is what's important to me. We will be bringing world-class healthcare and continue to do it for many decades. And I'm proud of that fact. I'm proud to be part of that. But again, we can't do it alone. We have to do it together.

Host: It's like a barn raising, so every little bit helps, and you said you operate on a thin margin. There's just nothing too small that you can do to help with that.

Dr. Dan Breece: Exactly.

Host: Well, Jarrett, Dr. Breece, Leah Breece, co-chairs of the Together Campaign, thank you for your work to bring more effective and transformative healthcare to our region.

Leah Breece: Thank you.

Jarrett Stull: We appreciate it. Thank you.

Dr. Dan Breece: Thank you very much.

Host: And that wraps up this episode of Memorial health Radio with Memorial Health System. To learn more about the campaign, visit togethermhf.org or call 740-374-4914. Please remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all other Memorial Health System podcasts. Thank you for joining us on Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System.