Insight Health Systems is on track to reopen one of two shuttered Warren hospitals in the next few weeks, officials announced at a public meeting on Tuesday.
"We lost over $30 million dollars over this transaction," Insight CEO Dr. Jawad Shaw said during the presentation. "We signed up for this, we are going to make the hospital work."
Services at the two Insight hospitals — Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull and Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside — ended in March, seven months after Insight obtained the properties from Steward Health System through bankruptcy proceedings.
Insight officials said Steward Health, which ran billing for the two hospitals, withheld funds—making continued operation impossible. A letter to staff announced furloughs, but said the hospital closures would be temporary, and were projected to last no more than six months.
Shaw said Insight recently received a license from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that will allow the hospital to bill for care provided to patients with Medicaid and Medicare.
"At this point, all the software, the team is ours, there is no backend support for (Steward)," Shaw said. "If we see significant volumes in a few weeks, we can clinically grow based on the needs of the community."
Shaw said the hospital will start by reopening its Emergency Room, radiology department, laboratory, pharmacy and in-patient services.
Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy said now that Steward is out of the picture, the community can finally move on.
“We've been victims of a crime from Steward. What Steward did to our community is horrible and it got worse and worse," he said. "I think we're beyond that now and now it's time to rebuild.”
Malloy said there are no guarantees Insight will be able to stay open indefinitely, but he's hopeful the hospital will become solvent. He said employers are adding jobs in the county, which in turn will lead to new demand for health care.
AFSCME Ohio Council 8 President Tom Connelly said Insight is telling staff it’s unsure whether jobs will be restored.
"They had all kinds of proposals for agency nurses, outsourcing," he said. "As a union president, I can't OK that. It essentially just neutered the union, all these proposals that they had. So I'm hoping that ... we can work with [Insight]."
Insight said they are working to reopen the other closed hospital, Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside, but are seeing delays in CMS approval for that hospital.
