HAMMOND — The Indiana Court of Appeals essentially pulled the plug on the 124-year-old Franciscan Health Hammond hospital Thursday afternoon.
An order signed by a panel of Appeals Court judges granted Franciscan’s request for a reversal of a local court’s order to keep its emergency service open.
Robert Anderson, an attorney for the Mishawaka-based hospital chain, said Friday afternoon, “Sadly it will close Saturday. Nobody is happy about this, but it is what we have been arguing for.”
Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. spoke bitterly about this latest turn in an 18-month saga to save the historic health center.
“It’s shocking to me. The Court of Appeals didn’t even give us a hearing. It was all one-sided," he said.
“Residents have repeatedly told me to just get another hospital into that location, but Franciscan doesn’t want another there at that site. They want to be in control here now that they have moved out to other communities where the rich people live. They are just evil,” McDermott said.
He said the closure of the downtown facility will mean longer wait times for emergency rooms in neighboring hospitals, which he said creates a danger for those needing emergency services in the future.
McDermott said, “Not one official of state or federal government reached out to help us either. I will remind those officials of that when they come to our community and say they are there to help us.”
He said the city plans to pursue other legal avenues in court, but acknowledged that even if the city wins a favorable ruling eventually, it would be difficult to reopen a hospital once it closes.
Hammond city officials have been fighting to keep what was originally called St. Margaret’s Hospital open since Franciscan announced in May 2021 it would demolish the 226-bed hospital.
Franciscan stated in its 2021 press release that it intended to keep a presence in the city’s downtown by opening a downsized facility offering 24/7 emergency services.
McDermott said he also received personal assurances from Franciscan management they would keep their emergency room in operation.
But Franciscan changed course Nov. 3 and announced the hospital would close on New Year’s Eve.
Franciscan officials said last week in court they were forced to retract their plans after the downtown location’s revenues declined in recent months to a trickle and it became too expensive to staff.
Attorneys for the city filed a suit 12 days ago, asking Lake Superior Court Judge Bruce D. Parent to find Franciscan had broken its promise to the city to keep a downsized presence in downtown Hammond.
McDermott said the hospital’s closure hurts the reputation of Lake County’s largest city and its plan to renew its downtown core.
Testimony at a five-hour hearing last week disclosed that within the last year Hammond ambulances have increasingly had to take emergency patients to East Chicago and Munster.
Parent sided with the city last week and enjoined Franciscan from either closing its downtown emergency room or reducing its services for the next nine months.
When Franciscan asked Parent to reconsider his decision, the judge responded Wednesday that Franciscan’s insistence that it cannot safely operate the Hammond facility anymore was unproven in his mind.
Franciscan lawyers immediately filed in Indianapolis for an emergency decision by the Court of Appeals to grant a stay of Parent’s order to keep its Hammond facility open.
Their petition states, “As of December 31, 2022, Franciscan will also be physically unable to provide on-site laboratory and pharmacy services, radiology services, respiratory care services, surgery services, wound care services, dietary services, or any of the necessary support services…
“Franciscan’s Hospital license expires … Saturday, December 31, 2022. It will be unlawful — not to mention dangerous to the public — for Franciscan to continue Hospital operations without a license, which is what the Preliminary Injunction requires," the petition states.
The hospital chain later issued a statement Thursday stating, “Franciscan Alliance is grateful for the Court of Appeals order.
“As such, Franciscan will proceed with ceasing operations and closing the emergency department as of Dec. 31, 2022.
“As most ambulances have already stopped bringing patients to Franciscan Health Hammond, we do not expect that closing the Emergency Department will cause disruption in emergency medical care for residents.
“As we pointed out to the Court of Appeals, many Hammond neighborhoods are closer to other hospitals within the region than they were to Franciscan Health Hammond.
“We believe this decision prioritizes patient safety, which has been our primary concern throughout the legal proceedings.”
Attorneys for Franciscan and the city of Hammond are now set to argue their cases at the Court of Appeals in Indianapolis, a process likely to last a couple of months.
© Copyright 2024, nwitimes.com, Munster, IN