What’s happening at Forum?

What’s happening at Forum?

It has been a while since the public has gotten any substantial news out of the reorganization efforts at Forum Health, one of the Mahoning Valley’s oldest institutions and largest present-day employers. The bankruptcy court has granted a couple of extensions during negotiations between the health care system and its creditors, which we would consider to be potentially encouraging. Certainly it is better than one of the alternatives, the forced liquidation of Forum’s assets to satisfy its debts.

It is known that among the possibilities being pursued is a reorganization that would allow for Forum to emerge from bankruptcy and continue operation as a local health care corporation. Or it could be sold to an out-of-state, for-profit corporation, which could do as it wished with Forum’s facilities. There’s a world of difference between those options.

We continue to maintain that Forum is an institution built by the community and for the community. Among the assets at risk are millions of dollars in charitable trusts that were amassed from donations large and small over the years.

A few months ago, virtually every politician in the area pledged active participation in efforts to save Forum from being gobbled up or parceled out. Since then, the congressmen, mayors, state representatives, commissioners and councilmen have been subject to various distractions.

If they’ve taken their eyes of the ball during this quiet time, they might consider refocusing.

One of Forum‘s spokesmen, Vince Bevacqua, said last month, when asked about Forum’s suitors: “We’re not going to violate the confidentiality of the process until it’s completed.” Translation: By the time the community learns anything, the fate of Forum Health’s holdings — Northside in Youngstown, Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren, and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland — will be written in stone.

And all those elected officials will have to hope that whatever comes out of the secret process is best for their constituents.