MONACA, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office invited the public on Monday to express their opinions on the proposed merger of Heritage Valley Health System and Allegheny Health Network. The partnership was announced in October.
Norm Mitry, the president and CEO of Heritage Valley, said the health system never fully recovered financially from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So, clearly, the unsustainable decline in cash flow is why we’re here today,” Mitry said.
Last summer, Heritage Valley closed the Ohio Valley Hospital in Kennedy. People who spoke at the hearing Monday said they don’t want the same thing to happen to the Beaver Medical Center and Sewickley Hospital.
“Think about a day when you and your loved one might suffer a life-threatening heart attack, stroke, or need to deliver a baby quickly. Minutes matter,” said Molly Romigh, a registered nurse, and the local chapter president of the Service Employees International Union. “Trying to get to Pittsburgh or Wexford can mean the difference between life or death.”
Tom Platt knows the importance of having a hospital nearby. His son nearly died in a car crash last March. He credits his doctors and nurses at that hospital for saving him.
“Only because there was a hospital nearby was he able to be picked up, transported, get to the hospital, for me to be there, to go and [potentially] say goodbye to my son,” Platt said.
Several EMTs agreed. They said if these hospital systems don’t merge, and Beaver and Sewickley’s hospitals close, ambulances would have to rush patients to Pittsburgh. That would put a strain on an already limited number of available ambulances.
“This change alone would routinely place ambulances out of service for more than 30 additional minutes per transport cycle,” said Brian Herskovitz, Chief of EMS at Valley Ambulance Authority. “Over the course of the year, this represents hundreds of additional units lost during which ambulances are unavailable to respond to new emergencies.”
No one spoke against the proposed merger during the hearing.
The Attorney General’s Office is still taking comments before making a final decision on whether or not the health systems can merge.
If you’d like to submit a comment on the proposed merger, you can email the Deputy Attorney General at eherne@attorneygeneral.gov
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