WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners have expressed their support for Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull’s management effort to stop patient admissions while the company works to implement its own billing and management systems.

Commissioner Denny Malloy during Wednesday’s commissioners meeting noted the company decided to stop taking long-term patient admissions while it implements its patient management system because the former owner, Steward Health, decided to sell the record and management system to a third-party vendor.

That vendor, according to Malloy, began charging Insight significantly higher fees to manage its record and management systems.

“It was outside of their (Insight’s) budget,” Malloy said. “It is outside anyone’s budget. It is almost a ransom.”

Dallas-based Steward Health Care is no longer honoring a transition services agreement (TSA) developed during Steward’s bankruptcy proceedings, according to Malloy.

The TSA supported functions at the former Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital.

Dr. Gary Goncz, president, chief restructuring officer and chief medical officer at the Warren facility, in a letter to employees and medical staff at Insight’s facilities, explained the TSA was set up to keep the hospitals’ doors open to patients during what normally would be a planned conversion over multiple months. Goncz noted Steward’s sale to a third party was done without Insight’s consent.

“Despite repeated attempts to resolve the issues, no agreement was reached,” he wrote. “We exhausted all options of resolution.

“For our local hospitals, these burdens are untenable and contradict the hospitals’ purpose of providing affordable and accessible medical care to the Warren community.”

All locations, including the Insight Hospital and Medical Center Trumbull, Insight Rehabilitation Hospital Hillside, and outpatient centers in Austintown and Cortland, will remain open to provide outpatient services, including outpatient surgeries, cardiac cath procedures, lab, imaging, rehabilitation and any other outpatient procedures.

“Insight does not want to pay the exorbitant fees, so they are going to scale production down a bit, so they can install their own system,” Malloy said. “The hospital is open. They are reorganizing.”

He noted most hospital services, including emergency services, continue while it addresses these concerns.

Malloy described Steward as a badly managed company.

The Ohio Nurses Association in a news release described Steward Health Care as “… a reckless, unaccountable corporation with no place in health care.”

Despite Steward’s exit, their mismanagement and greed continue to put patient care and hospital services at risk, according to the news release.

“Our patients are the ones who suffer the most from this instability,” DeAnna Fuchilla, chair of the Hillside Local Unit of the Ohio Nurses Association, AFT, said. “Every day, we’re doing everything we can to make sure they get the care they need, but the uncertainty caused by Steward’s bankruptcy is creating fear and confusion.”

“Our patients deserve better,” Fuchilla wrote. “They deserve stability, compassion and a health care system that puts them first.”

“If what they’re doing isn’t illegal now, it should be,” added Rick Lucas, RN, President of the Ohio Nurses Association. “We need a policy change to protect the public from these types of predators.”