While the shutdown continues, hospital and county leaders will eye millions of dollars of debt and whether or not RVHS can reopen under a different name.

Saturday, January 20, 2001

While the shutdown continues, hospital and county leaders will eye millions of dollars of debt and whether or not RVHS can reopen under a different name.

"I hope something can be done, especially for those jobs," commissioner George Patterson said.

The hospital property is county owned, and some people speculate that Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital, Ironton’s nearest healthcare neighbor, or Genesis, which had been discussing affiliation, will step in and either buy or run River Valley after its shutdown.

Commissioners say they have not been approached by anyone about the hospital’s future. Even if they are, it looks like change will take time, commission president Paul Herrell said.

Research is not complete, but it appears the county cannot sell or lease the hospital without the consent of the voters at a special election, said Jason Smith of the prosecutor’s office, the county’s legal representative.

"We’ve worked day and night for weeks on this, to help them," Herrell said. "And I don’t know of anything else we can do right now."

Newly-appointed hospital board member Pat Clonch said the hospital’s biggest problem is, and has been its debt.

Commissioners agreed, adding that groups like Genesis – and even state agencies – fear taking on that multi-million dollar problem.

Everybody’s in the same position – you can’t use public funds for a quick fix, Mrs. Clonch said.

"We will continue to do what is right and make an effort to redeem this."

But the complexity of operating, let alone shutting down a hospital, is so great that it will take time to find out what’s on the horizon, she said.

"Our first priority is an orderly shutdown and to see that the employees and patients are protected," she said. "Then we can look at what to do next."