SHARON, Pa. – Despite the latest setback, the city remains committed to reopening Sharon Regional Medical Center.
City Manager Robert Fiscus on Thursday said the city will continue to work to get the hospital open.
“We remain committed to work with all the stakeholders and try to come up with a solution that gets the hospital employees back to work and returns health care accessibility to the region,” Fiscus said. “Other than that, it’s still fresh, and we’re still trying to wade through what it means and trying to overcome the obstacles.”
Medical Properties Trust, the leaseholder for the hospital property, released a statement late Wednesday saying it and Tenor Health Partners “are unable to proceed with our agreement to reopen the hospital due to the Trust’s actions.”
After meeting early Wednesday, the board of directors of the Buhl Legacy Trust refused to drop any claims against MPT, including that the hospital leaseholder has not lived up to a prior agreement for the upkeep of the hospital.
In a statement, Buhl vowed it “will not surrender the community’s claim against MPT.” The leaseholder had urged Buhl to release the claims or it would jeopardize the deal between Steward Health Care System, MPT and Tenor Health regarding the sale and reopening of the hospital.
Fiscus said he sees MPT as the biggest obstacle to reopening the hospital, which officially closed Jan. 6. He said he believes Tenor Health remains committed to reopening it. Tenor was chosen to be the new operator of the hospital at a price tag of $1.9 million in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas, on Jan. 10.
Fiscus said Tenor was close to reopening the hospital and already in the process of transferring the medical licenses through the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“I asked [Tenor] if it was a matter of weeks or months, and the answer was days,” Fiscus said, adding Tenor was working on contracts with suppliers as well.
Buhl alleges MPT owes at least $25 million for failing to upgrade and maintain the hospital’s infrastructure, as was in the original sales agreement with Community Health Systems and reportedly agreed to by Steward, which purchased the hospital from CHS and then transferred the real estate to MPT.
Fiscus and the city were instrumental in lining up a local match for the deal that would allow Tenor to obtain and reopen the hospital, pulling together $10 million in local resources, including at least $5 million from the Buhl Regional Health Foundation. The city offered $500,000, and Tenor was supplying $10 million – money that it reportedly received from MPT.
“We’re way outside our comfort zone on what we usually do as a local government and a small municipality,” Fiscus said. “We’re not decision-makers here – we’re advocates and facilitators, and we will continue with that role and do everything we can.”
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is continuing to work with the city, Tenor and MPT to reopen the hospital, a spokesperson said Thursday.
“We are encouraged by everyone working in good faith to achieve the goal of accessible health care for the many people impacted by the recent closure,” the spokesperson said.
A hearing in Mercer County Common Pleas Court remains scheduled for Jan. 28 regarding the transfer of the property and subsequent lack of capital investments in the hospital.