Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and Democrat U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s respective political party members might find much to disagree about, but the two elected officials certainly see eye-to-eye when it comes to supporting endeavors for the University of Toledo Medical Center.
On Monday, the two announced they’re eying state and federal funding initiatives to support the expansion of the former Medical College of Ohio Hospital so it can provide further mental health services in northwest Ohio.
The governor and congressman announced their intention following a tour of the hospital along with Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor Randy Gardner and Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services Director Lori Criss.
Ms. Kaptur (D., Toledo) said along with more than $81.5 million passed in 2022 at the federal level to assist medical care and treatment, an additional $58 million was carved out for 2022 and 2023 specifically for community mental health services. And she wants as much of that as possible to come directly to northwest Ohio.
“We had the great joy of being elected together many years ago, and our paths have gone different ways,” Ms. Kaptur said about Governor DeWine, both of whom were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982. “And while neither of us wants to be gaining enemies in our own parties, we’re actually working across party lines to do something important: advancing health care for the American people.
“We are here today to talk about the advancement of this academic learning and treatment center, and it would not be possible without the governor of Ohio and chancellor of higher education taking an interest in northwest Ohio,” Ms. Kaptur added.
University of Toledo President Dr. Gregory Postel, who joined the elected officials on the tour, said a plan is already in the works to create an inpatient psychiatric unit at UTMC sometime in the next two years for adults. Doing so would connect other offerings at UTMC, which include pediatric psychiatric services, and geriatric psychiatric services, as well as research opportunities in those and other fields.
While the total cost of the endeavor hasn’t been calculated, Dr. Postel said Monday’s UTMC tour was in part to show how the university has utilized its roughly $30 million in coronavirus relief funding for the hospital so far and that further investment would likewise be well used.
“As with all state universities, we’re very dependent on support from the state and the federal government, particularly for our research,” Dr. Postel said. “And so we feel that educating our elected officials about the work that’s being done and showing them how the dollars that they’ve invested so far have been used can lead to more funding in the future, which is, of course, badly needed.”
Governor DeWine spoke of how UTMC, which was put up for bid in the spring of 2020 by UT trustees before they backed away from that initiative months later, is vitally important to the quality of life for northwest Ohio residents.
He said that was clear to him Monday during the tour when he and the rest of the group saw the work being done at the Dana Cancer Center, the Kobacker Center — or behavioral health facility where they saw the child and adolescent psychiatric units — and the surgical intensive care units since it was upgraded from a Level 3 to a Level 2 facility.
“A governor is supposed to look at things from a big picture, and the big picture is this needed to stay — that relationship needed to stay,” said Mr. DeWine, in his second term as Ohio governor. “It would not be helpful to see that separation, and that was just abundantly clear from what we’ve seen across this country.”
Meanwhile, Ms. Kaptur distributed packets listing federal grants that support mental health services and urged university officials to review them and apply.
“I just say this to those in charge because this is my moment: I would so ask you to not be shy about identifying research projects across disciplines that can link to the federal government through the state where necessary,” she said.
First Published April 17, 2023, 9:19 p.m.
