Linda Harris GROWTH — Steubenville-based Trinity Health System is coming off a very good year, officials explained.

STEUBENVILLE — During the past three months, a proposal to integrate Trinity Health System into the UPMC network continues to chug through the due diligence stage.

“We’re still in a due diligence phase with the actual process,” said Dwayne Richdardson, interim market president.

Due diligence is a comprehensive examination of an entity’s overall health: Not only are they going over Trinity’s financials with a fine-toothed comb, they’re also assessing how Trinity Health System functions, where and what its liabilities are, the quality of care its staff provides and even its regulatory compliance.

“What we’re hoping comes out of it is something called a ‘definitive agreement,'” Richardson said. “Once we have that, then we’ll be going through planning stages and things like that, but right now we’re still going through due diligence.”

The entities signed a non-binding letter of intent in October to integrate Trinity Health System into the UPMC family, which includes Trinity Medical Centers East and West in Steubenville, its Twin City Medical Center in Dennison, Belmont Medical Plaza and St. Clairsville Neighborhood Hospital, Tony Teramana Cancer Center, Women’s Health Center and an endoscopy center as well as its urgent care, behavioral health and physician office facilities.

“I’m very comfortable with this actual process because we’re going through it,” Richardson said. “When you get to hash out and talk about a lot of the minutiae of the deal, it (results in) a better transaction and transition. I’d rather not rush through the process because there are things that could be forgotten. I’m comfortable with the actual process.”

Richardson said it’s crucial for UPMC “to understand everything about the book of business.”

“We are a highly matrix organization,” he said. “So, we want those things to be well thought out, and we actually have an amazing team that is conducting the actual process in itself — that’s the good part because, again, you want it done properly.”

He said feedback has been “extremely positive” throughout the communities they serve.

“You know, being aligned with a local partner is a huge advantage for us because not only do we have a local partner, but we also have close synergies that are there and if we have close synergies, we have better alignment,” he added.

Potential integration into the UPMC network aside, Richardson said there’s lots for the community to be excited about happening within Trinity Health System.

“We’ve had an incredible year,” he said. “We have lots of great things to shout from the rooftop about — and I’ll start off first with our St. Clairsville Neighborhood Hospital, it’s our new shining star, a 20,000-square-foot micro-hospital, if you will. It includes 10 emergency treatment rooms, with two of those rooms being trauma rooms; a six-bed inpatient unit; and every kind of ancillary modality that you would need for a typical emergency room.”

The St. Clairsville site also has two operating room suites.

“There are a lot of needs still in that community,” he added. “Our goal is to further evaluate that area to see how we can aid that community.”

Richardson said they’ve also had big gains in what they call the patient experience.

“We’re performing at our best than we have ever had for this actual market,” he said. “We have not only improved our in-patient scores, but we are trying now to right-size our emergency room scores.”

They added 88 more private beds with the new in-patient tower at Trinity West featuring spacious rooms with a hotel-like feel, including lounge chairs that convert into beds for family members who want to spend the night.

“Patients love it,” he said. “From my perspective, we’re not here just to provide an aesthetically pleasing room. It’s about making sure that every patient is treated with dignity and respect, it’s making sure we’ve wowed every single patient and that they have excellent outcomes.”

He said Trinity Health System also hired 126 registered nurses, a record number, and has retained around 85 percent of them.

Trinity’s turnover rate — 14 percent — is well below the national average of 18 percent, which they credit to benefits, sign-on bonuses and working conditions.

“We have an excellent benefits package we offer sign-on bonuses and our working conditions (are excellent),” he said. “Our patients are really aligned with our aesthetics (bigger, thoughtfully furnished rooms with big windows), and our employees are the same way. We actually have more windows than they’ve ever had, which means they have more (natural) lighting. Our new emergency rooms are the only emergency rooms with natural lighting in the entire Ohio Valley — those are transom lights that are up high so, obviously, people can’t look in or things like that, but they offer natural light and that was done with intentionality to promote a healing environment.”

Richardson said seven physicians — a cardiothoracic surgeon, a pain medicine specialist, a primary care physician, two GYNs and two surgeons — joined the staff in 2025, and they’ve also scored successes with their physician residency and nurse residency programs.

U.S. News & World Report rated Trinity Health Systems as top program for maternity access, and they also earned the CSH Gold Center of Excellence designation.