Twin City Medical Center works to expand services to community
NEW PHILADELPHIA — Commissioners got an update Wednesday on new programs and services being implemented at Twin City Medical Center in Dennison.
The board heard from Dwayne Richardson, who has been the hospital's president for the past 10 months, and Rachel Maxwell, senior practice manager.
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"I'm excited to be working for Trinity Health System and for this community, Tuscarawas County, as I saw lots of opportunity for growth," Richardson told commissioners.
The hospital is part of the Trinity Health System, based on Steubenville. Trinity, in turn, is part of CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit, Catholic health system.
"Coming to the Twin Cities area is no small task," he said. "A lot of individuals, when you speak to them within the county, they only believe there's one hospital that exists. We may not even be known to many people, and so one of my goals today is to assure people that there's other healthcare for your choice."
Twin City has the bulk of people's basic needs, and because it's part of a system, the hospital has the ability to transfer from site to site, he said.
With more than 30 years in healthcare, Richardson most recently served as chief operating officer and senior vice president, operations for LifeBridge Health in Baltimore and Westminster, Md.
Prior to working in Maryland, he served as chief operating officer and interim CEO at Placentia-Linda Hospital, a part of Tenet Health, located in Orange County, Calif.
Richardson began his career as a radiology technologist and specialized in pediatric and adult radiography. He then became a registered nurse and practiced in the cardiac catheterization laboratory and emergency/trauma departments.
He discussed some of the new lines of service the hospital has already added or is looking into.
Ophthalmology is one of the largest and newest services lines. He said Twin City's goal is to be "the pinnacle, premiere service" in the county for eye care. The program is booming, he said.
Hospital officials are also looking at enhancing the general surgery lines, podiatry care, pain medicine, sports medicine and cardiac services.
"I hope to do better things once our situation with our health relaxes a little bit," he said. "What I mean by that is COVID-19. COVID-19 has plagued a lot of our programs that we have the inability to do effectively out there in the community."
Maxwell talked about how the hospital is working to expand telemedicine for its patients. She noted that Trinity's hospital in Steubenville has a lot of specialty physicians that can be utilized so that Twin City patients don't have to travel.
"That is one thing in our community that is a huge struggle is travel. The means to travel is hard to come by for some patients," she said.
Patients will be able to come to the hospital in Dennison and talk on camera with a healthcare provider in Steubenville.
Twin City Medical Center was recently named "Large Business of the Year" by the Tuscarawas County Chamber of Commerce.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Twin City Medical Center works to expand services to community
