Two Warren hospitals operated by Insight Health System have stopped patient admissions for non-emergencies following a sale of the previous owners’ assets.
Insight officials notified staff of the action in a letter on Tuesday, reporting the move is necessary as "new systems will need to be installed which will require restructuring Trumbull and Hillside hospitals’ operations and services."
The letter written by Gray Goncz, the system's chief restructuring officer and chief medical officer, said when Insight purchased the hospitals from Steward Health Care in the fall, they had a transition services agreement, in which Insight would use Steward's management systems to run the hospitals.
He said the system failed to block Steward's recent sale of that technology to a subsidiary of another medical group, Quorum Health, adding that new ownership will prevent revenue from reaching the local hospitals.
"For our local hospitals, these burdens are untenable and contradict the hospitals’ purpose of providing affordable and accessible medical care to the Warren community," Goncz wrote.
Steward has not yet responded to Ideastream's requests for comment.
"Our organization worked with Steward Health Care to assume ownership of its remaining transition services agreements," a Quorum Health spokesperson said Wednesday. "As part of our agreement to assume Steward Health Care’s transition services agreements, Quorum Health worked with Insight for several weeks, providing the operator the option to participate and preserve key hospital functions at no increased cost. Insight chose not to participate."
The Ohio Nurses Association blamed Steward for the chaos in a news release, calling for state legislators to pass laws to stop another health care system from following Steward's example.
"If what they’re doing isn’t illegal now, it should be," said ONA President Rick Lucas. “We need a policy change to protect the public from these types of predators.”
