Official welcomes ruling overturning restraining order

Forum Health can reorganize but must abide by its union contracts, the judge ruled.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
YOUNGSTOWN -- The interim president and chief executive officer of Forum Health says a federal judge's ruling will allow Forum Health to move forward with plans to transfer operation of Forum Health's behavioral medicine services to Diamond Healthcare.
Dr. Keith T. Ghezzi, in a memo issued late last week, said he is pleased that Judge Ann Aldrich of the U.S. Northern District Court overturned a temporary restraining order she had issued in September.
The order said Diamond Healthcare could not proceed with the takeover, which would have affected services provided at Forum Health's Northside Medical Center here and Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.
The Ohio Nurses Association's Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union District 1199, both of which represent employees in the Behavioral Medicine Unit, filed for the temporary restraining order.
In it, the unions said the takeover would trigger the dismissal of 60 employees at Northside and would be a breach of contract.
"Put simply, while Forum Health has the right to reorganize its business to avoid insolvency, it must not do so in ways prohibited by the contracts it has signed," Judge Aldrich ruled Friday. The ruling continued, "if it attempts to do so, it must resolve disputes in accordance with those contracts."
Union reaction
Eric Williams, president of the YGDNA, said Sunday that the ruling leaves open the question of whether the employees will keep their jobs under the plan, but it ensures that any issues that arise on that front can be addressed in arbitration.
Dr. Ghezzi's memo says the transition to Diamond Healthcare will have "no immediate impact to Forum employees."
Dr. Ghezzi said that Judge Aldrich's ruling acknowledged severe financial challenges and operating losses attributed to the behavioral medicine programs and that the judge agreed that Forum would be forced to shut down the programs without a transfer of the type being planned.
Under the contract with Diamond Healthcare, Forum Health will still own the behavioral medicine facilities and provide certain support services to Diamond.
Tied to losses
At an Oct. 23 hearing on the permanent injunction, Forum Health reported that behavioral medicine services had been responsible for several million dollars in losses -- or between 25 percent and 50 percent of Forum Health's losses for 2006.
"We are grateful for the court's decision that recognizes the importance of behavioral medicine services to this community and acknowledges Forum's efforts to identify a solution that would preserve those services," Dr. Ghezzi said.
Judge Aldrich's ruling can be appealed to a higher court, but Williams said no decision has been made on whether that will be done.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has two locals representing nurses and service employees at Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, did not join in the action.