Officials discuss Forum plans

Members of area health boards discussed the capacity of local hospitals.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- There are no plans now to close Forum Health Tod Children's Hospital, said Dr. Stephanie Dewar, a Forum Health hospital-based pediatrician.
"To my knowledge, services remain available and may even be expanded at Tod Children's," Dr. Dewar said Friday at a joint meeting of public health departments of Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Youngstown.
Dr. Dewar, who said she has been intimately involved in scrutiny of Forum facilities for the past two or three months, is president of the Mahoning County District Board of Health.
Friday's meeting was convened to facilitate discussion among public health officials on the possible impact on community health services if Forum reduces or closes any of its facilities.
Hospital under the microscope
Forum Health is involved in a self-described "radical restructuring" to reverse financial losses. Forum officials estimated earlier this year the company's 2006 operating deficit would be $60 million, a figure union officials dispute.
Also earlier in the year, Dr. Keith T. Ghezzi, Forum's interim chief executive officer and president, said the viability of all aspects of the health system would be looked at, leading to widespread speculation that Northside Hospital and Tod Children's were in danger of being restructured or even closed.
Also, in response to a question from Kim Johnson of Mahoning County's Help Me Grow program, Dr. Dewar said Forum's Women and Infants Pavilion birthing center in Boardman will "definitely be there." Help Me Grow contracts with Forum for some of its 800 home visits to newborns each year, Johnson said.
Besides the Mahoning County health department, the meeting included representatives of the Youngstown City District Board of Health, the Trumbull County Board of Health, the Mahoning County Mental Health Board and other interested agencies.
Planning
Public health agencies are responsible for ensuring access and availability of health care services, said Brian Corbin, president of the Mahoning County health board.
The purpose of the meeting was to begin dialogue on how to meet that mission if Forum, one of two major health care systems in the area, reduces or downsizes services and/or facilities.
Also fueling the discussion is the possibility of a bird flu pandemic, Corbin said.
Other community health services that could be affected by Forum's decision, according to public health officials, are: primary care for children and adults, particularly the uninsured; inpatient and outpatient mental health services; services for children with medical handicaps; home delivery of meals to the elderly; occupational health services; hospital bed epidemic surge capacity; and services for the homeless.
For example, the Mahoning County Mental Health Board has a $125,000 contract with Forum Health for beds for indigent mentally ill patients in Forum Northside Hospital's behavioral unit, said Ron Marian, the mental health executive director.
Dr. James Enyeart, Trumbull County health commissioner, said cost cutting has everybody down to the point where problems or reductions at one hospital would make it difficult for the other to take those patients.
Health departments are just beginning to plan for a possible flu pandemic. A key question is where large numbers of flu or disaster victims would be housed. The first place they will go is a hospital emergency department. In the best of times, these have limited surge capacity, said Matthew Stefanik, Mahoning County health commissioner.
Corbin called Friday's meeting a good first step and suggested that representatives of Forum Health and Humility of Mary Health Partners be invited into the conversation at the next meeting.
alcorn@vindy.com