This fall, Massillon’s shuttered Affinity Medical Center could be back in business with a new name and many of its old staff.
City officials have been fielding proposals from companies vying to operate the hospital, which closed in February and was then sold to the city for $1. Now, Paramount Matrix Healthcare, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, has been selected in a deal to lease the hospital for 5 years at a cost of $50,000 per month. That’s on top of $1 million to the city to make up for what it spent on facility maintenance while it was closed.
Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry, who is also a nurse, says the company plans to bring back some of the areas of care that had been eliminated prior to the closing.
“That is one area that is lacking in our community, is Gero-Psychiatry. And it's very needed. There’s a lot of people that have dementia and Alzheimer’s.”
City Council will vote on the deal at its meeting next Monday. Catazaro-Perry says if approved, the hospital would re-open in phases, starting with a four-bay ER that is slated to open by November 1. Former staff would be given preference for jobs at the reopened facility, which would be re-named Massillon Regional Medical Center.
