WARREN, Ohio – The parking lots and facilities at Insight Health System’s two Trumbull County hospitals remain empty nearly 20 days after the last employees were told to vacate the hospitals.
Trumbull County commissioners are still hopeful that a resolution will be found.
“We’ve been working with the governor. We’ve been working with our senator, with our state representatives,” Commissioner Rick Hernandez said after a commissioners meeting Wednesday. “We feel the pain and the need at the hospital there. … We are not satisfied with what has happened there. … We need our hospitals.”
Hernandez also said he is concerned for the 700 employees who lost their jobs when Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull in Warren shuttered. Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside in Howland closed as well, which, according to a WARN notice, affected another 143 employees. No WARN notice was issued for the Warren hospital.
Both Hernandez and Commissioner Denny Malloy said a meeting may happen later this week with U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, who recently sent a letter to Insight Health System, which owns both hospitals; Steward Health Care System, which owned both hospitals prior to filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; and Medical Properties Trust, which owns the hospital properties and leased them back to first Steward and now Insight.
“I know Insight is fighting,” Malloy said, adding that the company seems to want to stay in Trumbull County. “They just want to get paid for the services provided. They just want to pay their employees. They want to be here long-term, and we’re rooting for them to do that. And we’ll do anything we can under our power to give them an advantage so they can stay here and get these people back to work.”
The commissioners’ comments came on a day when they were celebrating the approval of an incentive package that could bring consumer paper products manufacturer Kimberly-Clark – along with 400 to 500 high-paying jobs – to the county.
“We’ve been knocked down enough here in the Mahoning Valley,” Malloy said. “And right now, our focus as commissioners is going to be on making sure that this happens, taking care of the people at Insight and hoping they can turn the corner on that and making sure that we’ve got these jobs here for our citizens and health care, schools, a good government. … It showed today when we got our people working together, rowing in the same direction – three commissioners, the mayor, the City Council and trustees and administrators – all working together with our economic people, we can make this happen. We are worthy. We deserve this.”