Call for help answered by all, says proud Forum CEO

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Walter "Buzz" Pishkur

The work force accounts for 60 percent of the hospital system’s budget.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Forum Health’s president says he is pleased to have new work agreements with all nine labor organizations in the hospital system.

“With ratification of the last union contract Sunday, July 26, I can now proudly say every employee has answered the call to help make Forum Health the financially sound medical provider the Mahoning Valley deserves,” said Walter Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement.

The final union to ratify a new contract was the Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association/Ohio Nurses Association, which represents registered nurses at Northside Medical Center.

Pishkur thanked all of Forum’s employees for their “dedication and willingness to contribute to our future success. It is a testament to the entire Forum Health team that we continue to provide our Valley with outstanding clinical outcomes and medical care while simultaneously working on our reorganization,” he said.

Because the work force, union and nonunion employees accounts for 60 percent of the hospital system’s budget, having their participation in reducing costs was absolutely necessary, he added.

Pishkur previously said that each Forum hospital — Northside, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland, has to be financially viable on its own.

For Northside, that meant achieving a $30 million annual turnaround by cutting costs and increasing revenues. The unionized employees’ share of that $30 million was established at $10 million — $4.4 million for the nurses and $5.6 million for Service Employees International Union-represented employees, he said.

“Our reorganization work continues. Forum still needs to contain costs and grow revenues,” Pishkur said.

On March 16, Forum filed for protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy code’s Chapter 11. The next big step for the health-care system is to file a reorganization plan with the court by the Sept. 15 deadline.

The nurses and the rest of Forum’s employees have done their part in the process, said Eric Williams, YGDNA president. Now, Williams said, it is up to Forum Health’s management, the bankruptcy court and Forum’s lenders to do what is necessary to allow the hospital system to survive.

alcorn@vindy.com