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Twenty-six rural hospitals across Ohio and West Virginia have launched the , a clinically integrated network serving more than 2.5 million patients. The effort aims to strengthen rural health care by coordinating clinical initiatives, sharing operational best practices, reducing contracting costs and easing administrative burdens.

“The more we work together, the better we can serve our communities — continuously improving quality, lowering costs and further strengthening rural health care,” said Myron Lewis, OHVN board chair and president and CEO of Blanchard Valley Health System in Findlay, Ohio.

The network will be managed by , an advisory group experienced in establishing similar rural hospital networks in Minnesota and North Dakota. Cibolo likens these networks to "farmers’ cooperatives," helping member hospitals achieve the scale needed to better negotiate with payers and health systems.

OHVN plans to establish a clinical and quality committee comprising representatives from each member hospital. The committee will foster collaboration among clinicians, drive improvements in patient outcomes, and identify strategies to reduce provider burdens, said A. Clinton MacKinney, M.D., Cibolo’s chief medical officer.

Many OHVN hospitals previously had collaborated through regional agreements; the new network formalizes and expands these efforts statewide.

Forming a network of this scale has been a long-standing goal, said Jeff Graham, president and CEO of Adena Health System. “It’s been a goal of mine for more than seven years to form this level of collaboration among our independent hospital systems. With the size and scope of the Ohio High-Value Network, we can collaborate on even more impactful areas to enhance our ability to deliver advanced, high-quality care and do so efficiently.”