Lisa Fry

Subsidium Healthcare consultant Lisa Fry talks to Lakewood residents Wednesday night.

(Bruce Geiselman, NEOMG)

LAKEWOOD, Ohio - Lakewood Hospital is on course to run out of money in 2018 if it continues operating unchanged, a health care consultant told more than 100 residents at a public forum Wednesday night.

Lisa Fry, a consultant with Subsidum Healthcare, has been hired by the Lakewood Hospital Association to help chart the future of health care in the city.

The hospital association, a nonprofit corporation that oversees operation of the hospital and is responsible for maintaining the building, has about $50 million in the bank. That money runs out in about three years, according to Fry's projections.

To continue inpatient operations, the hospital building needs major upgrades, costing about $100 million, she said. That would amount to about $1,852 for every man, woman and child in Lakewood, she said, questioning whether that would be the best use of money.

The Cleveland Clinic is leasing the hospital for a little over $1 million annually and provides medical services, but it is not responsible for building investments.

Fry and Lakewood Mayor Michael Summers spoke for more than two hours about why the Lakewood Hospital Association believes Lakewood Hospital should close and the Clinic should open a 64,000-square-foot family health center and emergency room in its place.

Summers and Fry said another question is how Lakewood Hospital would maintain enough patients after the Cleveland Clinic opens a new hospital in Avon. The has Clinic been feeding many of its Lorain County patients to Lakewood when inpatient services are required. However, that would likely end once the clinic's Avon hospital opens in September 2016, they said.

"The balance sheet of LHA would be depleted and we wouldn't have enough customers to run an inpatient hospital," Summers said.

Fry repeated earlier statements that inpatient hospital admissions are decreasing across the country as outpatient procedures increase.

During the final hour of the meeting, residents asked questions and criticized how the Cleveland Clinic and the Lakewood Hospital Association managed the hospital.

One resident blamed the elimination of pediatric inpatient services in 2010 for part of the decline in the hospital's occupancy rates and finances. However, Lakewood Hospital Association and Cleveland Clinic officials said when the pediatrics unit closed, it was averaging only 1.5 patients per night and was losing money. In addition, when the emergency room lost its trauma designation about the same time, only 12 trauma patients annually were coming into the hospital, also making it unprofitable.

Another resident criticized part of a tentative agreement with the Cleveland Clinic that calls for opening a family health center in Lakewood, but requires the city not to sell or lease current hospital property to any competing health care provider.

Tom Fuller, a medical doctor not affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic, questioned whether the Cleveland Clinic's proposed family health center in Lakewood would meet the needs of Lakewood's poor.

Marcello Mellino, a Lakewood resident and physician, said a failure to successfully recruit new doctors to practice at Lakewood Hospital contributed to its problems. Mellino also is on the board of the Lakewood Hospital Foundation, which raises funds for Lakewood Hospital.

Becky Patton, a nurse and member of the Lakewood Hospital Association, said health care changes are to blame and it is time to focus on what is best for the future.

"Health care is changing," she said. "We can spend the next 10 nights blaming ourselves and the situation we're in."

However, inpatient hospital beds are no longer a viable option, she said.

The next community meeting on Lakewood Hospital is March 10.

See Subsidium's presentation below.

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