The new owner of the former Steward hospitals in Warren have a message for the community: Things are different now.
Michigan-based Insight Health System saved Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital from imminent closure in September. The acquisition came six months after the hospitals' former owner, Steward Health Care, filed for bankruptcy and initiated plans to lay off employees and close both hospitals after not finding a qualified bidder.
The new leaders held a news conference Tuesday afternoon to introduce themselves and talk about their plans for the hospitals.
Insight CEO Dr. Jawad Shah said the system plans to increase patient volumes and drive profits by bringing more specialized care to the hospital, while acknowledging "the margins (to make a profit) are tight."
"What I perceive (of our role) now is that everyone's got to get together to try and fix the situation," Shah said. "I think that that idea of doing good care, making ourselves solvent, that's kind of what I think we're going to potentially do differently."
The newly-renamed Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull and Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside are also being converted into nonprofit hospitals, which will make them tax-exempt and eligible for government grants and programs. It will also require them to open their books to the public and provide community benefits.
Trumbull County Commissioner Dennis Malloy, who worked to stop the hospitals' closure, said with the continued economic expansion in the community it was essential for it to have two hospitals.
"We've had press conferences before in this valley, too many of them, where we're telling people bad news," he said. "Today to have a press conference like this to show the rebirth not only of this hospital and the future, it's a big win for all of us."
Insight is a for-profit health system based in Flint, Mich. It operates hospitals in four states and has a history of buying and reforming distressed hospitals.
Among recent changes in Warren, Insight says it's opened a new neurology unit at Trumbull Regional, bringing advanced neurological care to the county for the first time in 20 years. Officials say their hope is to spare the region's residents from having to drive to Youngstown, Cleveland or Akron for specialized care.
Steward made similar promises in 2017, when it purchased the Ohio hospitals. While it expanded some services, it also closed down Trumbull Regional's maternity ward, and shuttered operations at Northside Regional Medical Center in Youngstown in 2018.
