St. Claire opened its doors on July 1, 1963, as a general acute care hospital with 41 beds, 9 nurses and 6 physicians representing 3 medical specialties (General Practice, Surgery and Internal Medicine).

St. Claire HealthCare (SCH) is the largest employer in the region with over 1,000 staff members including more than 100 medical providers representing 32 medical specialties. It includes the largest rural hospital in Northeastern Kentucky with 159 beds, 7 primary care locations, located within 5 counties, a multi-specialty medical pavilion, an outpatient center, homecare services and operates 3 retail services including family medical supply, pharmacy, and aesthetics.

For more than 40 years, there has been a strong partnership between the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and St. Claire HealthCare (SCH), allowing many medical students and residents to rotate through SCH in internal medicine, surgery, pathology, family and community medicine. SCH is proud to serve as an established training site for the University of Kentucky College of Medicine's physician residency programs.

In 2005, SCH and the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center agreed to pursue defined affiliations focused on specific areas including cardiology, obstetrics and oncology, as well as other potential clinical areas, and education. By putting in place distinct formalized affiliation agreements for each of the selected clinical areas, collaborations are significantly accelerated. In addition to the immediate expansion of on-site offerings of specialized programs and services, these collaborations enable SCH to access the many resources of the university, which greatly enhances SCH's clinical program development efforts.

St. Claire HealthCare is committed to providing the best care for our patients, but our commitment doesn't stop there. We take great pride in being an engaged community partner committed to enhancing health and quality of life in our region.

In partnership with other community agencies and organizations, SCH provides or financially supports many community programs that benefit our residents, especially our most vulnerable populationschildren, older adults, those who are sick, and those in socioeconomic distress.

St. Claire HealthCare (SCH), Morehead State University (MSU) and the Gateway District Health Department (GDHD) joined together to form the 'Gateway Wellness Coalition.' The GWC is conducting extensive community health need assessments in four of the Gateway-area counties (Bath, Menifee, Morgan and Rowan). The goal for the assessments is to help identify the most crucial health needs and concerns in our region so we can work together to develop a plan of action to address the identified health priorities.

The GWC will conduct the health assessment using the Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) assessment tool. This tool provides the framework for assembling the variety of organizations, groups and individuals that comprise the local public health system to create and implement a community health improvement plan that targets services and education programs.

The goal of the assessment is to help us identify the most crucial health needs and concerns in our community so we can develop a plan of action to address identified health priorities. This includes a complete analysis of our assets, resources, and data obtained during the assessment to better enable us to plan for the future healthcare needs in our community.

The GDHD has a longstanding history of working collaboratively with SCH and other health organizations to assess and address community needs. The GDHD conducts field surveys from community events, health fairs and churches as well as other civic organizations.