WARREN — Warren City Council voted 8-1 at Tuesday’s regular council meeting to ask Mercy Health to reverse or postpone its decision to close the labor and delivery department at its St. Joseph Warren Hospital and talk to local leaders to discuss the reasons for it.
Based on remarks Tuesday night, those conversations have started to take place. Mayor Doug Franklin said he talked Monday with St. Joseph Warren Hospital President Char Gardner, and so did 2nd Ward Council member Tina Milner.
Milner was the lone holdout in an 8-1 vote that stated council’s opposition to the Oct. 28 announcement that the labor and delivery department would be closing in early December.
The resolution states that the closure would “deprive Warren and Trumbull County families of a critical service” and force patients to travel 30 to 40 minutes under ordinary conditions to deliver their baby in St. Elizabeth Boardman Hospital.
But in the caucus session before the regular meeting and on the council floor, Milner said she learned things as a member of the Bon Secours Mercy Health Family Advisory Council that met last Thursday that caused her to vote no on the resolution.
She said she would have liked to abstain from voting because her dual roles creating a conflict of interest, but voting no was the only option she had.
She said Gardner is preparing a fact sheet to share with the community “as to why they made the decision they made. I know she is open to a discussion.”
Milner said the decision to shut down the labor and delivery department and consolidate it at the Boardman Hospital was a hard one, “but she is willing to answer any questions, and I think that is a great idea.”
Milner said two ambulance service providers attended the advisory council meeting, and they committed to transporting women in labor from St. Joseph Warren Hospital to the Boardman Hospital if they arrive there in labor.
Milner said she does not know if it would involve ambulances being stationed at the hospital or ambulances being called to the hospital for the transport. Milner said she also does not know if the patient would be charged for the transport.
Franklin said he spoke with Gardner Monday night at the hospital, where his mother was being treated. He was there four hours, and he observed that “the volume of business at the hospital, particularly in the emergency room, is quite something to see. Staff is very busy and trying to maintain professionalism.
“But it was very alarming to me the volume of residents who were in the emergency room and in the hallways. They are trying to manage the best they can.”
He said Gardner “was very open and transparent. We do plan on having another discussion also” with Warren’s deputy health commissioner and possibly Trumbull County Combined Health District Health Director Frank Migliozzi.
He said the matter needs to be approached from the standpoint of an entity that has made “a corporate decision that is going to impact our community. I am all in support of trying to reverse that decision, but I also have to realistic that that might not happen, so we might need to work on how we can serve our residents if we can’t get that decision reversed.”
Franklin said, “They have already made a corporate decision. That being the case, we have to galvanize all of our resources — our transit parters, our whole health delivery community and also our business community.”
He said he will be “trying to work on both fronts to address this. I have to always keep MercyHealth in these conversations. I have to be communicating with them as we go through this transition.”
In other business, City Council gave first reading to two resolutions giving alternate ways to increase the cost for garbage collection by the Warren Environmental Services Department.
Council members have said that they expect a final vote on the increase at the second meeting this month, which will be Monday, Nov. 23 at 5 p.m.
Both options would raise the price about $10 per month spread out over the next five years, starting with 2027. The rate has been $17.37 per month since 2021.
The price for customers in city limits would rise from $17.37 per month now to $22.06 in 2027, $25.37 in 2028, $26.64 in 2029, $27.44 in 2030 and $27.26 in 2031.
For customers outside of the city, the price would rise from $18 now to $25.20 in 2027, $30.24 in 2028, $33.26 in 2029, $34.26 in 2030 and $35.29 in 2031.
If city council chooses an option that includes increased fees for people using more than one garbage tote, the price per month would be lower. Then the cost for people in the city would rise from $17.37 this year to $20.84 in 2027, $22.93 in 2028, $24.07 in 2029, $25.28 in 2030, and $26.54 in 2031.
The price for customers from outside of the city would see their price rise from $18 now to $23.40 in 2027, $26.91 in 2028, $29.06 in 2029, $30.52 in 2030, and $32.04 in 2031
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