With Angela Townsend

CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Clinic says it must close Huron Hospital, which is bleeding money and is half full many days.

But the decision Monday to close the hospital within 90 days still drew vocal disappointment and pushback from local and regional leaders, who say the health and welfare of area residents is at risk.

Huron is one of the city's oldest health-care providers, a community anchor and a main source of trauma and emergency care for the surrounding neighborhoods. Generations of the area's families were born at the hospital.

As the region's population has declined, however, the number of people using Huron dropped in recent years. Now, on average, only two babies are born there each day. In contrast, in 2010, 3,803 babies were delivered at Hillcrest Hospital, and 4,399 babies at Fairview Hospital.

In 2004, most of the hospital's 211 available beds were usually full. On Monday, only 112 beds were occupied, said Dr. Gus Kious, president of Huron Hospital.

“We're basically half-empty,” he said.

On some days, Huron has as few as 47 hospitalized patients. The hospital’s operations have lost more than $77 million in the last decade.

“We recognize that this is a very difficult decision,” Clinic Chief Executive and President Dr. Toby Cosgrove said during an afternoon press conference.

He added that Huron’s decreasing patient numbers hinder the Clinic’s ability to provide high-quality care. To replace the hospital, the health system plans to open a free-standing, $25 million community health center on Oct. 3.

Clinic leaders met with more than 250 community members to develop a plan for the three-story, 50,000-square-foot building, which will offer outpatient services that focus on the identified needs of area residents: chronic disease management and prevention for diabetes, hypertension and kidney failure. Huron’s doors will remain open, with services decreasing in the coming months, until early October.

The new center offers little comfort to patients and community leaders.

Last October, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton filed a joint lawsuit, which they later withdrew, to stop the Clinic from closing Huron’s trauma services.

Huron Community Health Center

The $25 million, three-story center opens Oct. 3 at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Belmore Road to provide outpatient care to area residents.

Outpatient services will include:

• Primary and specialty care.

• Specialized care for women and children.

• Mental health services for adults and teens.

• Prevention, wellness and health education programs.

The Clinic plans to provide free shuttle service to its main campus and Euclid, South Pointe and Hillcrest hospitals for patients and family members. Details are yet to be worked out, a Clinic spokeswoman said.

SOURCE: Cleveland Clinic, staff reporting

“I would have never suspected that [the Clinic] would close the whole hospital,” Jackson told The Plain Dealer. “At no time were we told that [earlier].”

Since mid-November the Clinic has been in ongoing talks with the city, surrounding communities and emergency service agencies, as well as the county-funded MetroHealth System, about closing trauma services at Huron.

During those talks, Jackson said, “there was a commitment to maintain the emergency room.”

With that gone, even more patients — not just trauma patients — will be affected, Jackson said. “Where are they going to go?”

Norton said he discussed with Jackson on Monday whether or not to refile the lawsuit against the Clinic.

“They’re taking the whole thing away,” Norton said, adding that “people will now die. And chances are, the people who die will be [from] the East Side of Cleveland and the near eastern suburbs. The lifeline for victims is gone.”

The prevailing sentiment among East Cleveland residents is “shock that the Cleveland Clinic, a world-class health-care provider, would close a hospital in one of the communities where it is needed the most,” Norton said.

Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil said that the health system would talk with the city of East Cleveland and the city of Cleveland to discuss the transition.

“Dr. Cosgrove has reached out to community leaders [and] to elected officials to walk them through, in depth, the challenges we were facing,” Sheil said.

Walter Griffin, who has lived in East Cleveland since 1964, said he takes his 77-year-old mother, who has dementia and high blood pressure, to appointments at Huron three times a month.

“This is crazy, man. This is nuts,” Griffin said. “There’s going to be some trouble up here about closing this hospital.”

Clinic leaders, as well as local health system experts, said Monday that there are plenty of places for the residents in East Cleveland to go and, indeed, most are already going to other hospitals. Only about 30 percent of the residents in East Cleveland use Huron, a Clinic spokeswoman said.

Dr. David Bronson, president of Cleveland Clinic Regional Hospitals, said residents could use the expanded emergency rooms at the Cleveland Clinic main campus as well as University Hospitals — both within three miles of Huron.

Cleveland EMS transported 3,000 patients to Huron’s emergency department in 2010.

“That’s a lot of patients for us to divert or redistribute,” said Cleveland EMS Commissioner Ed Eckart.

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Huron Hospital timeline

Rep. Marcia L. Fudge said access to emergency services would be her “No. 1 priority” in talking to Clinic officials during a previously scheduled meeting today. Fudge said she had scheduled the meeting to get an update on Huron.

“Now, the meeting is going to be changed to determine why the decision was made at this point to close Huron,” Fudge said.

Earlier this year the Clinic conducted a community health assessment.

The top three identified needs were promotion of a healthy lifestyle, access to primary care and prevention education, and public safety.

Sheil said that the nonprofit health system expects to lose $6 million to $8 million a year operating the health center. But that is a fraction of the $22 million it lost operating Huron last year.

John Begala, executive director of the Center for Community Solutions, a local think tank, said area residents should be able to get most of their needs met at the center.

“All of that said, it doesn’t take away the economic impact that this will have on the families, on the neighborhood and the businesses who depend on having a large employer nearby,” he said.

Huron has about 850 employees. Clinic officials said that they are actively recruiting those staff members and offering job opportunities at nearby facilities.

Cosgrove said what would happen to the hospital building was unclear.

“There’s no getting around it,” Begala said of the hospital closing. “It’s going to hurt.”

Plain Dealer reporter Brie Zeltner contributed to this story. To reach these Plain Dealer reporters:

atownsend@plaind.com, 216-999-3894

stribble@plaind.com, 216-999-4255

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