Union Hospital has goal of 'family taking care of family,' new president says

NEW PHILADELPHIA – Dr. Thomas J. Rogers, the new president of Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital in Dover, is stressing the hospital's continuing commitment to the community.

"I think our commitment to the community is certainly well known. What we do at Union Hospital, the people that we take care of, I look at it as a family taking care of family," he said at a Tuscarawas County Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia.

"I always ask, would you have your mom come to this hospital? If the answer is yes, that's what we want to hear, because we want you to be able to say I feel comfortable to get my care here and I feel comfortable with my family here. That's key to making sure an organization is successful in a community, and really at the end of the day, that's our job. That's what I want to make sure we continue to do."

Rogers began his duties on Aug. 15.

Who is Dr. Thomas J. Rogers?

Rogers, 55, a Stark County resident, retired earlier this year from active military service in the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He served as director of the DiLorenzo Pentagon Health Clinic and the Fort Belvoir Community Hospital Branch Clinics in Washington, D.C., from 2017 to 2022. A board-certified family physician, he was commissioned as a captain in the medical corps in 1993, entering the Army through the Health Professions Scholarship Program and Army ROTC.

Rogers said he will be focused on taking care of the staff and encouraging residents to use the services the hospital offers.

"We're really excited about having that goal to be able to provide the best care we can to our patients," he said. "And we want to be able to have the ability to have the specialties when we can. We may not have them every day, but I'd like to be able to look at opportunities that we can share those assets with Canton (Mercy Hospital) and with Akron (Akron General) to be able to make sure we get the specialty care we need. I'd rather have physicians come to my patients than have the patients all go to one office."

He has met many people in the community who have told him that they were born at Union or that they have family working there.

"That is to me what it means be in a community hospital serving a community, being the largest employer in a community, where we can have folks that come and want to work there," he said.

The hospital has around 1,000 employees.

How does the hospital attract doctors and nurses?

Following his presentation, Rogers was asked by Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger what Union Hospital is doing about physician recruitment.

Rogers said the hospital had been focused on recruiting registered nurses.

"We were extremely short on nursing," he said.

The hospital has about 200 nurses currently on staff.

Recruiting doctors will be more challenging, he said. Ideas to help solve that problem including contacting area residents who are studying medicine and working to bring them to Union. Then, the goal is to keep them here.

"I think that's what we need is physicians who love what they do and then we just take care of them to make sure we give them all the tools necessary to do their job," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: New Union Hospital presidents speaks to Tuscarawas County Chamber