WARREN — The union that represents nurses at Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital has filed an objection to Steward Health Care’s decision to close it, joining others in the fight to keep it and other local health care centers open.

The motion by the Ohio Nurses Association was among a flurry of filings this week in the ailing health care company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case over the planned Sept. 20 closure of Hillside, Trumbull Regional Medical Center and several satellite facilities.

Meanwhile, a hearing today on a request from Western Reserve Health Education, Inc. — a nonprofit medical education and residency training program affiliated with Trumbull Regional, Hillside and Sharon Regional Medical Center — to compel Steward Health to assume or reject a contract it has with the group for the program has been adjourned to Sept. 17.

No reason for the delay was given in the filing. Steward Health has until Sept. 11 to respond to Western Reserve Health Education’s request.

ONA OBJECTION

The ONA joined Western Reserve Health Education, Warren, Trumbull County and Warren City Hospital — the nonprofit created to try to purchase the assets of Trumbull Regional, Hillside and certain other facilities and operate them — in their objection Tuesday to closure notices Steward Health filed Aug. 21.

Hillside, the filing states, is a “vital resource” for the region that provides a “unique and critical service” in specialized rehabilitation and recovery care.

“It (Hillside) is irreplaceable — if it closes, the people who now and in the future need the services that Hillside provides will be forced to travel to get those services, and the skilled and dedicated workforce that provides the care will end up scattered,” the motion states.

“Closing Hillside precipitously,” as Steward Health has asked the court in Houston permission to do, “will hurt the Warren community, the patients and the people who have devoted their lives to care for Hillside’s patients,” the motion states.

The association’s motion Wednesday piggybacks on Tuesday’s objection, asking the court to give the group trying to save the hospital more time to submit a bid and / or extend the closure deadline to Nov. 20.

The ONA represents 22 nurses at the facility in Howland.

OTHER FILINGS

• Vital Records Control, which has several contracts with Steward Health for records storage and retention, states in its motion Steward Health’s bidding and sale procedures, and closure notices “are not clear on how the patient health records will be handled.”

Bankruptcy law requires the records be held for 365 days, and although the closure notices address how patients may pick them up, they are unclear what obligations the company has “relating to coordination or pickup and / or destruction of records not picked up by patients,” the motion states.

In addition, for the facilities being sold, it’s unclear whether Steward Health plans to transfer the company’s contract to the purchasers to keep track of patient records.

The motion states Vital Records Control has 346 boxes of records for Hillside; 2,636 boxes for Northside Regional Medical Center, which closed in 2018; 3,375 boxes for Trumbull Regional; and 72 boxes for Trumbull Region’s wound center.

• UnitedHealthcare Insurance stated in its motion it does not object to closing the facilities, but the closure date.

To comply with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regulations, the insurance company stated it must give its members at least 30 days notice of closure, and because United has more than 7,000 members who would be impacted by the facilities’ closure, the company estimates it would need an additional 10 days to mail the notice, the filing states.

The company is asking for 40 days notice to “allow it to provide its members the requisite notice” to be in line with the federal agency’s rules.

• Dext Capital LLC, which leases equipment to Steward Health at facilities that include Trumbull Regional, filed its objection to “assert its ownership, security interest and lienholder rights” over the equipment, the motion states.

The company states Steward Health wants to abandon the equipment upon closure and let the property’s landlord use or dispose of it free of any claim or lien.

• Post Road Equipment, which also has leased equipment at Trumbull Regional and certain satellite facilities, filed a similar motion stating if Steward Health wants to abandon the equipment for the benefit of the landlord, “such action violates and constitutes a post-petition default” under the leases.

• Quest Diagnostics, which provides testing services to various Steward Health hospitals and facilities, filed a motion reserving its rights to object in connection to a lease agreement it has with Steward Health for space at 20 Ohltown Road in Austintown, which is one of the satellite facilities on the closure list.

The motion also states Quest and Steward Health have purchase and lease agreements with Steward Health entities to acquire leases and certain lab testing equipment at or near Steward Health hospitals.