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Forum CEO to seek debt refinancing
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Walter Pishkur
The chief executive will meet with Forum’s bond holders on Nov. 10 in New York City.
HOWLAND — Walter “Buzz” Pishkur said one of his first tasks as Forum Health’s new chief executive officer will be to try and persuade the health system’s creditors to refinance its debt and free up money to invest in technology and facilities.
Forum owes $146 million, some $51 million of which has been paid into a debt service retirement fund, bringing the actual debt to about $95 million, he said.
Pishkur said Wednesday that he is scheduled to meet with Forum’s bond holders on Nov. 10 in New York City, when he will give them a financial report and present them with a new business plan and a forecast for 2009.
“I will try to convince them we are an ongoing entity,” Pishkur said.
He acknowledged, however, that the current economic crisis will likely negatively impact Forum — as it will other businesses.
“It will certainly reduce the number of people seeking health care, which will adversely affect our patient volume,” he said.
Forum also faces a reduced bond rating, which officials have said could make it more difficult and expensive to borrow money.
A bond rating firm, Moody’s Investors Service in New York City, in September lowered Forum’s bond rating from B3 to Caa2. Moody’s says its Caa-rated obligations are “judged to be of poor standing and are subject to a very high credit risk.”
Having acknowledged Forum’s financial problems, Pishkur reiterated his desire to change the image of Forum from “financially troubled” to a hospital system that provides high quality health care, and has a lot to offer the community.
He noted Forum’s Graduate Medical Education Program, a physician residency training program in which 79 future doctors participated during the fiscal year ending June 30. That is a positive for the physicians and the community, because some of the doctors remain and start practices in the area.
Pishkur would not confirm the rumor that Forum may buy Austintown Ambulatory Care. He did say that Forum is looking at ways to increase its patient stream and is “actively talking to an entity about a partnership.”
“It is not just Austintown that we are looking at. Business development is something we need to do to grow revenue,” he said.
He said Forum is not actively shopping for a buyer for Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland, where he has his office. Pishkur said Forum will not entertain offers for any facility that fits its plan for the future, a plan that will be finalized in 40 to 60 days.
He said 48 nurses were recently hired at Forum’s Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, and that Forum is recruiting nurses for Northside Medical Center in Youngstown. Most of the new nursing hires are to fill existing staff vacancies, but they will serve to cut back on overtime and the use of agency nurses. It is evidence that Forum Health is still alive and committed to quality care, Pishkur said.
alcorn@vindy.com