Patients bundled into cold night as Deaconess shuts its doors
Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Patients bundled into cold night as Deaconess shuts its doors
11/29/03
Damian Guevara
Plain Dealer Reporter
Deaconess Hospital shut down last night and began transferring all of its patients to other health- care facilities, just two days after a bankruptcy judge approved a temporary financing agreement for the organization.
The interim plan was to allow Deaconess to remain open through at least late December. But it was not to be and hospital officials refused to say why.
Officials said in a faxed state ment, "It is with great difficulty that Deaconess Hospital LLC determined late Nov. 28, 2003, that it will be unable to remain open at this time."
News spread among hospital staff yesterday that the hospital was closing immediately.
By late evening, paramedics loaded heavily bundled patients into ambulances amid blowing snow.
Word reached U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who said he was told the hospital was moving patients and packing up boxes.
"It seems to me that this is an abrupt course of action," Kucinich said last night by phone from New Hampshire. "The sheer suddenness of it raises questions."
The Old Brooklyn facility rescued from closing three years ago filed for bankruptcy protection Nov. 21. The 81-year-old hospital sought protection from creditors after two lenders claimed Deaconess defaulted on loans with a total of $8.9 million in debt outstanding.
Kucinich said last night that he planned to meet with his law yers to see if legal intervention could keep the hospital afloat.
Parma Community General Hospital spokesman Albert Matyas confirmed that eight Deaconess patients arrived at Parma yesterday evening. All but one came with transfer orders from their doctors, Matyas said.
Parma was still expecting an unknown number of other patients to arrive last night, Matyas said. Deaconess officials told The Plain Dealer earlier this week that the number of patients at the hospital ranged from 50 to 60 a day in the last month.
Among the provisions in the plan that allowed Deaconess to stay open was a requirement that the hospital have at least 50 patients. Slipping below the threshold would give the creditors the right to shut off the flow of cash with 48 hours' notice.
Officials said in their written statement that the hospital was able to meet its payroll this week and that it wasn't until yesterday that they realized that continuing to operate wasn't feasible.
Deaconess has filed for bankruptcy twice in the last four years. The first time, a company owned by Dr. George Saad bought it out of bankruptcy with the promise of resuscitating the hospital. But the hospital is now $14.3 million in debt with $15 million in assets. Saad could not be reached to comment last night.
Chief Financial Officer Chris Bolton declined to comment on the patient transfers. A security guard refused to allow reporters inside the building.
Subscribe to this blog's feed