Bankrupt hospital seeks cash to reopen
Share with others:
BROWNSVILLE, Pa. -- They've sought money from everyone from government leaders to Pittsburgh hospitals.
They've even sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking for federal stimulus money.
They say their project perfectly meets the criteria for such funding. It would provide medical care for a rural, impoverished area; it would provide immediate employment to more than 150 people; and it is shovel-ready.
In fact, the Brownsville Tri-County Hospital is more than shovel-ready. The 104,000-square foot, one-level building is already updated, newly refurbished and just waiting for someone to come in and use it.
"This is comparable to any of the hospitals they have down in Pittsburgh," said Frank Ricco, president of the board of directors. "Everything a hospital should have, we have."
Plagued by a lack of funding and lengthy bankruptcy proceedings, the hospital, set on a 27-acre campus in nearby Redstone, Fayette County, has closed twice in the past five years. Most recently, it stopped operations on Feb. 12, after its board of directors recognized it would fall $200,000 short on payroll.
Six days later, it filed a Chapter 11 petition as well, listing more than $12 million in debts to several hundred creditors, including employees who weren't paid.
Mr. Ricco, who some refer to as "Mr. Brownsville," isn't confident the hospital will get any federal money.
"I've been told the chances are slim to none," he said. "But I haven't given up."
Brownsville was once a booming community in just 1.1 square miles. Home to coal mines, boat yards and a railroad in the late 1800s and early 1900s, its population once swelled to more than 10,000. But now, the number has dropped to fewer than 2,800. Its downtown is home to more vacant buildings than occupied, and recently, a small flower shop and the Eckerd drugstore moved out.
The only stores that remain in its once-thriving business district offer furniture, paint, hardware and computer repairs. There is also a diner and a bar, as well as a mental health rehabilitation and senior center.
"The theaters, coal mines, railroad passenger cars, the trolley lines. They're all gone now," said Mayor Lewis Hosler. "Back then, we didn't have trouble maintaining a hospital."
But Brownsville's hospital has been troubled for many years.
In 2004, Brownsville General Hospital, as it was known then, had to phase out intensive care services after running at a loss for several years.
Then in June 2005, a group of private doctors purchased the hospital and changed it into a for-profit operation. Tara Hospital, as it was named, lasted only until January 2006.
The operators surrendered their state license and filed for bankruptcy -- a case that is still pending now.
Determined to make the hospital work, Mr. Ricco and another board of directors set about reopening the facility.
But because of new state regulations, upgrades to the building -- such as removing asbestos ceiling tiles, installing a new sprinkler system, a continuous oxygen supply line and new sinks in every patient room -- cost $2.5 million.
That put the hospital in a major financial slump even before it opened.
"We started with nothing," Mr. Ricco said.
And two potential revenue generators for the hospital -- its eight-room intensive care unit and operating rooms -- couldn't be used because they lacked a heating/cooling/ventilation system that would have cost $600,000 to install.
Despite those setbacks, and being able to use only 21 rooms for acute care, and another 18 for geriatric and psychiatric patients, the facility opened with great fanfare in May 2008.
In the short time the Tri-County Hospital operated, Mr. Ricco bragged, its 159 full- and part-time employees served about 17,000 patients.
People in the community who needed blood work or lab tests no longer had to make a drive of at least 25 minutes to Uniontown or Monongahela Valley Hospital, across the Monongahela River in Carroll.
"The community needs health care," Mr. Ricco said. "We have an elderly community here. For our people to have to drive 12 miles to the nearest health facility is unacceptable."
Woody Nicholson, who is the borough's code enforcement officer, a local fire chief and a former hospital maintenance employee for 10 years, agreed.
"We've got to get it back open," he said. "This town needs that hospital."
Police Chief Stanley Jablonsky said having to travel out of Brownsville for medical care is not only time-consuming but costly and potentially dangerous.
Sometimes, a police officer's entire shift can be tied up transporting a DUI suspect to Uniontown or Mon Valley to have blood drawn for evidence. It's worse, he said, when an officer must take a person with mental health problems on the 12-mile trip.
"When you're talking about somebody's life, every second counts," he said. "Brownsville Hospital would take me a minute and a half at the most."
Sister James Ann Germuska, CEO of Crosskeys Human Services Inc., said when the hospital closed the last time it was like losing a member of the family.
"There was a consolation knowing that it was right there, and you knew you'd be taken care of right away," she said.
Her organization, which provides senior activities and mental health rehabilitation to more than 350 people, now has to take patients to Connellsville or Greene County for services.
When Tara Hospital closed, Sister James Ann said, the community was angry.
"That's not happening this time," she said. "If you open it, we're going to go right back. I just feel that God's going to give it back to us."
Mr. Ricco, who runs a bus company in town, is trying to find someone to provide financing for the hospital.
Complicating matters for Brownsville Property Corp., the entity that owns the building, was an action against it in bankruptcy court. When the private physician group took over the operation of the hospital in 2004, the building was transferred to Brownsville Property, which leased it back to the doctors.
However, after the doctors filed for bankruptcy in 2006, Robert Bernstein, the trustee appointed by the court to distribute hospital assets, filed an action against Brownsville Property to take possession of the building, which some have valued as high as $12 million. If he had done so, the building could have been sold and the proceeds could have been used to pay off creditors.
Late last year, Brownsville Property, which would retain ownership of the building, agreed to settle the matter by paying $2 million by November or $6 million after that.
However, a new wrinkle developed when Mr. Bernstein learned that Brownsville Property Corp. took out an additional $2.5 million mortgage on the building after the settlement agreement.
He filed an immediate action in bankruptcy court asking that Brownsville Property be forced to pay the entire $6 million.
After some negotiations, Mr. Bernstein advised the court last week that the mortgage company has agreed to release the loan and the matter will be settled.
But even with that situation resolved, it has become a struggle just to pay the hospital's utility bills and keep it clean and up to date for a possible reopening.
"It's a bit of a train wreck," said Robert Lampl, the attorney representing the hospital in the new bankruptcy. "We're not sure how to handle it."
Covering at least part of their costs for the short term will be money from CBS. The network has started prep work to film a pilot for the medical drama "Three Rivers" there.
In the meantime, signs for the hospital along Simpson Road have been covered with bedsheets, wrapped in duct tape and bungee cords.
But inside, the hospital still feels new, with recessed lighting, soft color schemes and shiny floors. The X-ray lab, with digital equipment that sends images to Pittsburgh to be read, as well as modern lab equipment, sit unused but ready to go.
"It doesn't take much to get everything up and running. Everything's here," Mr. Ricco said. "We just hope that they hear us. We don't want anything for nothing.
"They're going to get [their money] back."
First Published March 29, 2009 12:00 am
