Hospital’s closing raises concerns
NAACP to host forum featuring Premier executives. STAYING WITH THE STORY
DAYTON — Assurances by Premier Health have local NAACP and leaders of churches near Good Samaritan Hospital encouraged, but still concerned in the wake of the announced closing of a longtime anchor of northwest Dayton.
The groups expressed concern Saturday that the hospital’s closing may present health and economic risks for the area.
Senior Pastor Corey Cunningham of The Inspiration Church said “tens of thousands” in that area have depended for decades on Good Sam, some of whom “literally have their lives saved” because the hospital was close by.
Meanwhile, Dayton Unit NAACP President Derrick Foward said Good Samaritan’s closing — taking away about 1,600 jobs from that part of the city — is an example of how “our community is bleeding with business loss.”
Cunningham said it is important for the community to “find a pathway forward” and he hopes a step in that direction will come Feb. 10, when the NAACP hosts a forum featuring Premier Health executives at Zion Baptist Church, 1684 Earlham Drive.
Cunningham and Forward said they were “grateful” to Premier Health for the community forum, which is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Premier CEO Mary Boosalis and Premier Board of Trustees Chairwoman Anita Moore agreed to the meeting after what Foward said was a two-hour meeting Wednesday, the day Boosalis announced Good Samaritan’s closing.
Boosalis called the closing by the end of the year a “most difficult but necessary decision” for the Philadelphia Drive hospital that has been cornerstone for the area for nearly a century.
Foward said Boosalis and Moore told him all of the hospital’s employees would be taken care of — either through severance packages or through other positions within Premier Health.
Good Sam is a vital part of the community, which is why the community forum is key for residents in the area, Cunningham said.
“We can be able to sit down and express, share (concerns), but also find a pathway forward so that we can make sure that the health of our community is taken care of,” he said.
Several people have told Cunningham “because of health episodes, they would not have made it to any other hospital — because of the proximity of where the health episode happened or where they lived they were Our reporters will continue to follow the closing of Good Samaritan Hospital and the impact on the community. Sign up for our newsletters and push alerts at DaytonDailyNews.com to get the latest. able to literally have their lives saved because they were able to get to Good Samaritan Hospital,” he said.
“There are those who don’t have that opportunity to get to another hospital — either by or somebody else going there or the ambulance driving them,” Cunningham added. “So very important and critical to our community.”
Foward also called on city of Dayton officials, who were told of Good Samaritan’s closing just before the announcement, to establish a business retention plan for that area “to stop the bleeding inside our community.
“It could potentially in the future drive up our taxes,” he said. “So we collectively need to make certain that governmental leadership needs to stand up, be accountable and put together a business retention plan to help stop the bleeding inside of our community.”