O’Neill Healthcare History
60 Years (and Counting!)
At O’Neill Healthcare, compassionate care is a family tradition. Since 1962, the John O’Neill Family has owned and managed local senior healthcare facilities, building a solid reputation in the Greater Cleveland community for providing comprehensive care and creating a positive environment.
The Early Years
John and Alva O’Neill, founders of O’Neill Healthcare, have been active residents of Bay Village for nearly 75 years, both as residents and as business owners. The O’Neill Healthcare story begins in the late 1940’s, when founder John O’Neill immigrated to America from Ireland in 1948.
John was born near Ballinkillen, County Carlow Ireland and Alva Mason was born in Cleveland. They met while John was in the states to visit an uncle and aunt. John’s presence in Ohio was meant to be a stop enroute to Australia, but while here, he enrolled in a Carpenter apprentice program and met his future bride and Cleveland became his permanent home.
He settled down to start his new life in Greater Cleveland and he found the city full of life after the Cleveland Indians won the World Series. The O’Neills married in 1951. Alva worked in the Terminal Tower for the Cuyahoga County Park Board. She worked there during the exciting time of park acquisition and expansion that eventually coalesced into what is now known as the Emerald Necklace.
John was a carpenter by trade, working for several large contractors including MJ Boyle of Chicago as a foreman building the Nike Missile Base in Bratenahl, Ohio.
In the late 1950’s the O’Neills began a home-building business, with John using his carpentry skills and Alva maintaining the books. The O’Neills built houses throughout various West Side suburbs including Fairview Park, North Olmsted, Bay Village, and Avon Lake.
In the late 1950s, John was contracted to build a nursing home on Bradley Road in Bay Village. John and Alva recognized that additional healthcare services were needed on Cleveland’s West Side. Constructing a nursing home health care facility on the western edge of Cuyahoga County made sense as there were not plentiful options available in the area at the time.
Bradley Road Hospital, which today is known as O’Neill Healthcare Bay Village, opened its doors in 1962. John became a partner in the business through his sweat equity of constructing the nursing home facility. Both John and Alva assumed the responsibility of running the day-to-day operations and became licensed nursing home administrators to provide exemplary care. John and Alva eventually became the sole owners of the Facility.
John and Alva have two children, Doreen Ziska and John T. O’Neill, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren. John and Alva turned operations of the business over to their son, John T. in 1984.
Now, John and Alva’s grandsons—David Thomas, Richard Joseph, and James Robert—are also active in the business. What began as a 25-bed rest home in Bay Village has grown into a continuum-of-care facility currently offering 136 skilled care beds, 33 senior living apartments and 37 Memory Support Suites. The organization also grew into other westside communities, and the O’Neill family of homes now includes Bay Village, Fairview Park, Lakewood, Middleburg Heights, North Olmsted, and North Ridgeville. In addition to new locations, new services were added to meet the needs of seniors, and now include skilled nursing, assisted and independent living, therapeutic rehabilitation, memory support, dialysis and hospice.
A brief timeline of O’Neill Healthcare’s physical growth and expansion:
1962 – Bradley Road Hospital (O’Neill Healthcare Bay Village) opens in Bay Village, Ohio.
1986 – Center Ridge Nursing Home (O’Neill Healthcare North Ridgeville) opens in North Ridgeville, Ohio after eighteen months of construction.
2001 – Wellington Place (O’Neill Healthcare North Olmsted), a newly constructed 50 suite Assisted Living facility opens in North Olmsted, Ohio.
2006 – O’Neill Healthcare acquires an existing senior community in Lakewood, Ohio formerly known as Aristocrat Lakewood and renamed Lakewood Senior Health Campus (O’Neill Healthcare Lakewood).
2015 – Garnett Health Campus (O’Neill Healthcare Fairview Park), a newly constructed facility offering skilled care and on-site dialysis, opens in Fairview Park, Ohio.
2021 – 2022 – O’Neill Healthcare assumed management of the existing skilled nursing facility formerly known as Accord Care Community and now called O’Neill Healthcare Middleburg Heights.
2022 – Expanded O’Neill Healthcare Hospice service to include offering services in the home, as well as in a Skilled Nursing Facility or Assisted Living.
The Future
With John O’Neill’s son and grandchildren currently active in the daily operations for the six O’Neill Healthcare communities, the organization is primed and positioned to serve Greater Cleveland for the next 60 years, and beyond.
