Legislators, hospital to brainstorm

Beeghly Oaks nursing home in Boardman may become a 50-bed hospital.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Area state and federal legislators will meet Tuesday with Forum Health executives to offer help to the financially troubled health care system and get an update on Forum's board of trustees' restructuring plan.
Besides area legislators, participants in the meeting, organized by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, will include Dr. Keith Ghezzi, Forum's interim president and chief executive officer, the mayors of Warren and Youngstown, and the presidents of the Mahoning and Trumbull County boards of commissioners. The meeting is at 9 a.m. at the Youngstown Business Incubator.
In addition, the Forum board of trustees is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon. Some insiders think the board will decide at that meeting the "radical restructuring" it says is needed for the health care system to survive.
Forum has projected losses of $60 million in 2006 if it does not receive $25 million in concessions from its unionized employees and make other cost-cutting moves. Forum says if it doesn't act quickly, its bond holders may demand payment and force the sale of assets to pay off the bonds.
In a statement Wednesday, John Gonda, public relations and marketing director, confirmed that Dr. Ghezzi has been discussing restructuring options in meetings with a dozen nursing units.
What was discussed
Specifically, Dr. Ghezzi talked about the possibility of shifting some patient care services to Forum's Beeghly Medical Park.
Also, Gonda said, "our board of trustees and leadership team are continuing to evaluate available options to try and preserve some of our services that are losing money, including behavioral medicine and pediatrics."
The Service Employees International Union said the perception of two of its members that attended one of the Monday meetings chaired by Dr. Ghezzi is that Tod Children's youth psychiatric services unit was "on the block," and that Beeghly Oaks, a nursing home located within Beeghly Medical Park Campus in Boardman, would be refitted to operate as a 50-bed hospital.
The SEIU represents about 1,400 employees at Forum facilities.
Eric Williams, president of the Youngstown General Duty Nurse Association of the Ohio Nurse Association, said some of his members reported that Dr. Ghezzi said Tod Children's wasn't doing well financially but did not specifically say what, if anything, would happen to the facility.
One purpose of Tuesday's meeting between legislators and Dr. Ghezzi is to discuss legislative issues as they relate to Medicare and Medicaid, which hospital officials say are major sources of revenue, Ryan's spokesman said.
Legislators' letter
In an April 3 letter to Dr. Ghezzi, Ryan and U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th, expressed concern over the potential Forum facility closings, particularly about access to medical care if Northside and Tod Children's Hospitals are closed.
Ryan and Strickland also urged Forum to involve its employees in the decision-making process and offered to meet with stake holders to find solutions that best serve Forum Health, its employees and the community.
Williams said the nurses union, at a meeting Monday with Forum executives, was shown the financial information upon which Forum is basing its push for radical restructuring. Williams would not discuss specifics.
However, according to Williams, Forum leaders refused to reveal what the Forum Health system would look like even if it got everything it asked for from its employees.
"We're not close-minded people. But, no reasonable person would agree to anything before they know what's going to be left," he said.
Williams said that he's heard that employees of Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital (Forum facilities in Warren and Howland, respectively) have been told those facilities will still exist (after the restructuring). But that hasn't been told to the employees at Northside, Williams said.
alcorn@vindy.com