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Forum announces changes
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Left to right: Forum Health in Howland are Robert Wolleben, COO Trumbull Memorial, Walter "Buzz" Pishkur CEO and Michael Seelman, Forum Northside COO
The 2008 operating loss at Northside is expected to be similar to that suffered in 2007.
HOWLAND — “They don’t have ‘interim’ in front of their title,” said Walter “Buzz” Pishkur, Forum Health president and chief executive officer, as he introduced the two men selected to complete the company’s senior management team.
The Forum Board of Trustees has always wanted the stability and continuity of a permanent management team, but for several years has been involved putting out financial fires.
“We are no longer on fire watch,” Pishkur said during a Wednesday press conference conducted at Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.
The new additions to Forum’s senior management team come from within and from outside the Mahoning Valley.
Michael G. Seelman, who came to Forum in 2002 and lives in Boardman, was promoted to chief operating officer (COO) of Northside Medical Center in Youngstown. He replaced Lowell Johnson. Seelman will continue as senior vice president and COO of Forum Health Services, which includes Hillside Hospital.
For the past six months, Seelman was interim COO of Forum’s Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren. Before coming to Forum, he was senior regional director of operations for Alterra Health Care Corp.
The new man in town, Robert G. Wolleben, was named executive vice president, second in command to Pishkur, and COO of Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
Wolleben has 30 years’ experience in health care administration, most recently as vice president and administrator of the Horton Campus of Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, N.Y. Orange Regional is a 450-bed, two-campus system with 15 outpatient locations.
Wolleben earned a bachelor of arts degree in biology at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City and a master of arts degree in health care administration from George Washington University Graduate School of Business in Washington, D.C. He grew up in a medical family: His father was a physician and his mother was a nurse. He said he plans to live in Trumbull County.
Pishkur thinks having a permanent management team in place is key to winning back the confidence of the community and clients lost over the past few years.
He admitted Forum’s reputation has been tarnished. Also, he said there has been a big drop in admissions at Northside, caused in part by the sale of Beeghly Medical Park in Boardman, which was an important conduit for admissions to the hospital.
Seelman said part of his job is to recapture the patient volume that has been lost, particularly in southern Mahoning County.
Also, Pishkur reported that the 2008 operating loss at Northside is expected to be similar to that suffered in 2007. The exact amount of 2008 red ink won’t be known until the books are closed out, he said.
Moody’s Investors Service, a bond rating firm, said operating losses at Northside, which the Moody’s report said is driving losses for the entire system, was $7.1 million through the first seven months of 2008.
Despite that, Pishkur said he is confident that Forum can re-engage with the community and physicians and repair Northside’s financial bottom line in 2009.
He said there are no immediate plans for employee layoffs, but also noted that there is so much uncertainty that he could not positively say “yea or nay” at this point.
He said initiatives are being developed to better Forum’s financial picture, but he said he will not reveal plans until after a meeting with lenders in New York City, scheduled for Jan. 29.
The meeting with lenders has been pushed back a couple of times, a sign Pishkur said indicates that Forum’s lenders like what is going on at Forum and are therefore willing to allow more time for the hospital system to develop a business plan for 2009.
alcorn@vindy.com