New Forum CEO to keep hospitals intact

By Don Shilling

The president of Aqua Ohio takes over the top job at the hospital system.

HOWLAND — Forum Health’s new president said all of its hospitals will stay open and none are up for sale.

Walter “Buzz” Pishkur said at a news conference Friday his focus will be planning for a future that includes Northside Medical Center, Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.

The troubled hospital system has sold or closed some of its other facilities, and it’s been suggested it should divest itself of Northside.

Pishkur, who has been chairman of Forum’s board of directors, said the board not only is keeping Northside but it also has raised its expectations. In June, the board decided it wanted Northside to do more than break even. It wanted the hospital to have an operating profit of 3 percent.

Pishkur said Northside has lost about $8 million so far this year, but he hopes it “can make significant movement” toward its financial goal in 2009.

A recently signed contract with the nurses union will help, as would a new contract with non-nursing employees represented by the Service Employees International Union, he said. That contract expires Sept. 30, and talks are under way, he said.

Reaching a contract with the SEIU is critical because it is one of the factors being watched by Forum’s lenders, he said.

Earlier this year, the lenders agreed to put off collection of debt payments until January 2009 if certain conditions were met. Among them were reaching new contracts with the unions.

Interim chief executives have been running the system since 2006 in an effort to reach financial stability. The system turned a $33 million operating loss in 2005 into a $7 million operating profit last year.

Pishkur said executives will be conducting strategic planning over the next 90 days to prepare for Forum’s future.

He said he held the news conference at Hillside because he wanted to point out that it remains an important part of the system. He said he will locate his office at Hillside because executives running the other hospitals “need space.”

Lowell Johnson, the most recent interim chief executive of Forum, will become chief operating officer of Northside. Pishkur said he expects Johnson to remain with Forum through the end of the year.

Michael Seelman, who has been with Forum since 2002, will remain chief operating officer of Trumbull Memorial.

Pishkur has worked the past 39 years in the water industry and is president and chief executive of Aqua Ohio and Aqua Pennsylvania-Shenango Division. He will be resigning next month.

Aqua Ohio, a subsidiary of Aqua America, is based in Boardman and is the largest water provider in the state.

Even though he was chairman of Forum, Pishkur said he distanced himself from the selection process because of his interest in the position. The board named a search committee and a search consultant, Michael Kieffer of Chicago.

Diane Sauer, a Warren car dealer and board member, said Kieffer selected Pishkur as the best candidate, and he was unanimously approved by the board.

She said he was selected because of leadership skills and his enthusiasm for the position and Forum.

“He is most definitely a people person and is recognized nationwide for his ability to inspire people to do their very best,” she said.

shilling@vindy.com