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Northside bears lion’s share of the debt
If Northside did not face a larger share of Forum’s debt load, it would be making money.
YOUNGSTOWN — Divesting Northside Medical Center and its debilitating operating deficit from Forum Health would bring the whole health care system down, said the head of the Northside nurse’s union.
“There is no way Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital could handle the debt by themselves,” said Eric Williams, president of the Youngstown General Duty Nurse Association at Northside.
TMH in Warren and Hillside in Howland are the other major hospitals in the Forum Health system.
Williams thinks if Northside is closed or sold, the creditors (lenders) would “come in and liquidate everything and leave one hell of a mess,”
“I don’t think people fully understand what can happen. This is a real issue,” said Williams. “We need the community to rally around us.”
He also thinks people have the mistaken idea that it is primarily employee costs that have caused Northside to operate at a loss for several years.
If Northside did not face the largest share of Forum’s debt load, it would be making money, just like TMH and Hillside, Williams said.
More money was spent at Northside on capital projects and equipment than at the other major Forum facilities, leaving Northside with the lion’s share of the debt, Williams said.
Here is how the corporation works, said Walter J. Pishkur, Forum president and chief executive officer.
When money is borrowed and spent on a facility, repaying the debt is shared proportionately by that facility and comes out of its operating revenue. More money was spent at Northside than at Trumbull Memorial, therefore Northside pays more of the debt, Pishkur said.
Williams thinks that closing Northside would be a disaster, not just for Forum Health and the people who work there, but the community as a whole.
There would be a negative financial impact in both Mahoning and Trumbull counties caused by the loss of jobs and taxes they represent, and not only those jobs at Forum. The American Nurse Association estimates that for every hospital job, there are eight additional spin-off jobs that would be at risk, Williams said.
The union president said Forum employees can’t achieve a financial turnaround by themselves.
Forum has begun an effort to raise public awareness and support with a series of meetings, which started with elected officials and will also include public forums.
The meetings are a personal way to tell the Forum story, and to ask community leaders and the community in general for their ideas and support, said Pishkur.
Forum bought some time to develop a financial turnaround plan by filing March 16 for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At the time, Pishkur said the lenders definitely want Northside closed. In its court filing, Forum said it owes lenders $139 million.
alcorn@vindy.com