Northside Regional Medical Center closing: the 2018 letter

What Steward announced

Steward Health Care, which had bought Northside along with other Mahoning and Shenango Valley hospitals in May 2017, said it would permanently close the Gypsy Lane hospital. It filed a mass-layoff (WARN Act) notice with the state saying the whole facility would close no later than September 20, 2018.

Steward also sent a letter by overnight delivery to Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and to Anthony Traficanti, then president of the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners. It said some services that were physically on the hospital's property, but not part of the hospital itself, would keep operating.

Why Steward said Northside Regional Medical Center was closing

Steward said the hospital had been badly under-used for years despite continued investment, and that there was no realistic way forward. The figures it cited:

• Patient numbers had fallen 71% over the previous decade, while nearby hospitals were seeing more patients.
• The 398-bed hospital averaged about 35 patients a day over the previous six months.
• On a typical night, four out of five beds were empty.
• All this came after a $20 million expansion and renovation completed in 2013.

The closing schedule

• September 17, 2018: the emergency department stops accepting ambulances and admissions, and labor and delivery stops taking patients.
• By September 19: remaining inpatients are transferred to nearby hospitals or discharged.
• September 20, 12:01 a.m.: the hospital closes.

What it meant for employees

The first state notice listed 388 jobs. A revised notice days later raised that to 468. Steward said employees would be paid through October 14, 2018, and compensated for accrued benefits. It scheduled on-site job fairs for August 23 and September 6 and pointed to more than 200 openings at its Trumbull Regional, Sharon Regional and Hillside Rehabilitation hospitals. Unionized nurses and other staff were represented by the Ohio Nurses Association and SEIU District 1199.

What stayed open in the building

Steward said several medical practices would continue at 500 Gypsy Lane after the hospital closed, including the family practice clinic that served thousands of Youngstown residents, along with outpatient lab services, radiology, mammography and sleep studies. The last of those services ended in September 2024, during Steward's bankruptcy.

How Youngstown reacted

City officials worried about patients, workers and the budget: the city's law director said hospital employees had paid about $1 million in city income tax the year before. Mercy Health's regional chief said losing Northside's emergency and maternity departments could put pressure on St. Elizabeth Youngstown, less than two miles away. Business and community leaders said they hoped the building would find a new use rather than sit empty.