Friday, September 28, 2007
YOUNGSTOWN — Moody’s Investors Service, one of the most respected companies for credit ratings and risk analysis, has removed Forum Health from its “watch list” and revised its ratings outlook from negative to positive.
Moody’s cited Forum Health’s operational improvements as well as progress in marketing its assets, reaching agreements with labor unions and strengthening its cash position among the reasons for revising its outlook.
“While we still have much work to do, we have made meaningful progress,” said Keith T. Ghezzi, Forum’s president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. “The Moody’s report demonstrates the extent to which the hard work of Forum’s employees, managers and physicians has helped secure a better future for our hospitals.”
Forum closed Tod Children’s Hospital in Youngstown on June 30, and Beeghly Medical Park in Boardman was sold earlier this month to Akron Children’s Hospital, which plans to create a pediatric hospital there.
Also, Beeghly Oaks, a long-term care facility on the Beeghly Medical Park campus, was recently sold.
Forum is looking to sell its Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and has a nonbinding letter of intent to sell its Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren to a Houston company.