The future of two closed hospitals in Warren remains unclear — and that’s nothing new for Trumbull County.
The hospitals’ previous owner went bankrupt last year, and it looked like both facilities would close until a Michigan-based company acquired them and promised to keep them running.
Now that company, too, has laid off workers and closed the hospitals down — temporarily, the company said in March.
What has been the impact of the closures at Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull and Insight Hospital and Medical Center Hillside?
Insight Health Systems abruptly furloughed nearly 700 Trumbull County employees and closed the doors to its facilities on March 27. The system blamed the previous owner, Steward Health Care, which has been tied up in bankruptcy court. Insight executives said Steward Health Care hasn’t provided expected funds to Insight.
An estimated 200,000 patients are affected by the sudden closure. It has meant the closure of the only behavioral health provider in the county.
There are concerns the county’s 911 dispatch center, which is located there, could be affected if Insight decides to cut power to the building.
How likely is it the hospitals will reopen?
Hospital officials said in an emailed statement that Insight would need to redesign the hospital’s operations independent of Steward in order to reopen. Insight has not responded to several Ideastream requests about what needs to happen for that to work.
Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy shared in an county commissioner meeting on April 4 that Insight executives told them it’s possible the hospitals might not reopen, but they are working hard to avoid that outcome.
“The CEO's been there for five days straight, sleeping in the hospital to make sure that he's staying on the ship, making sure he's doing everything he can to keep that ship from sinking," Malloy said.
Tom Connolly, president of AFSCME Local 2026, which represents registered nurses at Insight Trumbull, told commissioners that the nurses there have lost faith in Insight after officials escorted staff out of the building, and have not answered their questions.
“We're getting tired of them blaming all of their problems on Steward," he said. "Steward’s supposed to be gone. They were supposed to make sure that they were gone. They're the ones that are running this business… These people are not from here, and now we don't trust them.”
The health system would need to clear another hurdle to reopen. Bankruptcy court records show a medical equipment company is currently suing Insight for failing to pay for, and return, leased medical equipment.
Who is Insight Health System?
The new owner of the Warren hospitals, as of late last year, is a health system based out of Flint, Michigan. It has a history of buying distressed hospitals in several states and has faced scrutiny over the high management fees it collects for some of the hospitals it acquires.
David Johnson, a Chicago-based health care expert, said health systems that operate like Insight have a nickname in the industry.
“Bottom feeder companies... will buy up marginal hospitals and do things to make them profitable, (including perform) more surgeries and then (do) less of the community services that actually are vital," he said.
Experts said the situation in Warren points to a bigger crisis —that market has largely failed to support health care in rural areas, where there is less money to be made. So far, they said policy has not caught up to guarantee these essential health services.
But Johnson said there are ways to make health care work for places like Warren.
For example, the Veterans Administration has found success with a model focused on the whole of a person’s health —prevention, primary care and chronic disease management, instead of one built around crisis care, he said.
Is anyone at the federal or state level investigating the situation?
On April 7, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) sent a letter demanding answers from Insight Health Systems, Steward Health Care and Medical Properties Trust (MPT) — the landlord that owns the Warren hospital facilities, which it leases to Insight. Moreno called on executives to explain how they plan to reopen the hospitals and assist laid-off employees, among other questions.
Niki Frenchko, a former Trumbull County Commissioner and a real estate agent in the community, said she wants more action.
"They're basically pirates," she said of the companies. "They're coming in and they're looting our health systems just like they did to the steel mills. Our state representative's office, they should be having their legislative aides looking at legislation to prevent this from happening.”
In the meantime, the community is stepping in to help those affected by the closures.
Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley has provided emergency food to the hospitals’ furloughed employees. The city has suspended utility bills for them. Trumbull County Department of Job and Family Services is connecting workers with resources.
