Deaconess hospital shutdown came as a surprise
Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Deaconess shutdown came as a surprise
11/30/03
Harlan Spector
Plain Dealer Reporter
Dolores Hrusch had a bad feeling on Thanksgiving Day as she walked through an empty lobby and up to the eighth floor of Deaconess Hospital to visit her mother.
"It was just gloomy. We walked into the hospital. There was nobody at Information," said Hrusch, who lives in Chester Township.
On Friday night, a nurse walked into her 85-year-old mother's room at the small urban hospital and told Genevieve Perozak to get ready to move.
"She said, We're closing down.' I said, You're kidding,' " Perozak recalled yesterday from her bed at Parma Community General Hospital.
Deaconess filed for bankruptcy protection Nov. 21.
On Wednesday, the court approved interim financing to allow the hospital to remain in business.
But Friday night, the hospital on Pearl Road in Cleveland's Old Brooklyn neighborhood issued a brief statement saying it could not continue operating.
Neither the contact person on the statement nor the hospital's lawyer returned phone calls yesterday.
Parma Community General, which accepted eight patients, had no prior notification of the closing, a spokesman said.
Information was not available on how many patients had been at Deaconess and were transferred to other hospitals.
Perozak, who had been at Deaconess for a week with a lung infection, said ambulances lined up outside the emergency room to transfer patients.
"They told me the ambulance would take me. I didn't have warm clothes, so they threw a bunch of blankets on me," she said, as a half-dozen relatives gathered at the foot of her bed.
Hrusch said Deaconess did not notify her that her mother was being transferred.
She heard about the closing when she arrived home at 10:30 Friday night and played a message from her mother.
Perozak, who lives on Cleveland's West Side, said patient care was good at Deaconess, despite the financial collapse.
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich vowed to fight the hospital closing. He believes Deaconess violated a city ordinance requiring hospitals to give Cleveland 90 days notice before closing.
That law was passed after the Cleveland Clinic tried to close St. Michael Hospital near Slavic Village.
Kucinich said lawyers on his staff will review the bankruptcy records when the court opens tomorrow and decide on a course of action.
That legal action successfully delayed the closings of St. Michael Hospital and LTV Steel and shows there is still hope, Kucinich said.
Cleveland Councilman Michael O'Malley, whose ward borders Deaconess, hopes a large health-care system like the Cleveland Clinic or University Hospitals considers buying the hospital.
"I think it's still economically viable, under the right management," O'Malley said.
"I hope someone steps to the plate and sees there's money to be made while keeping a neighborhood institution in place. If not, there's going to be a hole in the heart of Old Brooklyn."
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