Northeastern Hospital may get life support
A community hospital in Northeast Philadelphia may have been given a 30-day reprieve on a planned shutdown of its inpatient services. But confusion swirls around the issue.
A community hospital in Northeast Philadelphia may have been given a 30-day reprieve on a planned shutdown of its inpatient services. But confusion swirls around the issue.
Listen:
[audio: reports20090413hospital.mp3]
Temple University Health System announced last month it would convert it’s Northeastern Hospital branch into an ambulatory care center by July 1. That would mean no more emergency room, no more maternity ward. Jerry Silberman represents nurses at the hospital. He says Temple has promised to hold off for 30 days on taking any steps to convert the facility.
Silberman: If we can use the next 30 days to effect some kind of reprieve, the physical changes in the hospital won’t become irrevocable. Some of the staff, the doctors and nurses who are looking for jobs as we speak will hold off on that quest for a few weeks.
But Temple Health System officials would not verify that they’d offered any such moratorium.
Silberman says hospital officials made the promise during a meeting at which community groups threatened to sue to stop the conversion.
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