Cleveland Clinic to wind up Huron Hospital in 90 days

The reasons cited behind the decision are falling number of patients, declining population of East Cleveland, and rising cost of maintaining the 135-years-old facility.

The decision, cited as a difficult one, was made by a special committee comprising the board of directors of the Cleveland Clinics, and the hospital leadership.

Hospital to cease operations within 90 days
The officials said they were forced to make this decision as the hospital, “is not sustainable for long term future.”

Cleveland Clinic added that the outpatient care will continue at the Huron hospital till the new Huron Community Health Center starts functioning at the Huron hospital campus Oct. 3.

Delos M. Cosgrove, CEO and presidentof Cleveland Clinics, said, “This is a difficult day for Cleveland Clinic, but we are firmly committed to caring for this community and supporting our employees affected by this decision.”

The officials said they were forced to make this decision as the hospital, “is not sustainable for long term future.”

“Huron Hospital has given a diverse group of physicians, nurses and employees the opportunity to do great things, and what we’ve accomplished for a socioeconomically challenged patient population will be carried on,” Cosgrove added.

Reasons behind the decision
One main reason behind the decision was that only 17 percent of the primary market of Huron visited the hospital in the first half of 2010 for heart care, pulmonology and oncology.

Less than 60 percents of the 185 beds were occupied in the hospital and it had less than 100 patients visiting throughout the day.

Recent census data shows that the population of East Cleveland had also declined 37 percent since the year 2000.

The decision to close the hospital had been resented by many in the community.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson said that the plan to close down the hospital was not revealed to him.

The statement read, “In fact, when asked directly about the future of Huron Hospital, Clinic officials stated that there was no intention to close the emergency room, let alone the entire facility.”

Rep. Marcia Fudge from Warrensville Heights said that she was deeply disappointed by the decision of the Clinic.

However Dr. Cosgrove said that Clinic has no plans to close down any of its other eight community hospitals. “We are committed to all the communities we are in. We may be serving them in a different sort of way than we are now, but we are not abandoning any of the communities – much like we’re not abandoning East Cleveland,” he added.