43
VNA to close doors by end of year
YOUNGSTOWN
The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Youngstown, founded 107 years ago in 1904, will close its doors by the end of the year.
“It’s very sad, but my priority is getting our 120 patients staffed at other home-care agencies,” said Suzanne Tucci, who has been with VNA for 24 years, the last 12 as its executive director.
No patient will be discharged from VNA until a new caregiver is found, she said.
Tucci said other area home-care agencies have been wonderful in stepping up to take VNA’s patients, and also offering jobs to many of its 30 employees.
The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Youngstown is an independent nonprofit agency that provided home care and offered health screening and medicine- checking events.
Tucci said lack of finances led to the Dec. 5 decision by VNA’s board of directors to close the agency.
The majority of VNA’s funding came from Medicare, third-party payers, some grants and the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.
But, she said, being an independent agency not affiliated with a hospital or nursing home, it was very difficult to get enough patient referrals, it was hard to keep up with the competition and financially harder to stay alive.
“It’s very difficult to close. But, we serviced the community for 107 years, and we can take pride in what we’ve done,” Tucci said.