(Image source from: AZCentral.com)
Two Arizona hospitals suddenly announced Friday that they are bankrupt and will be closing their doors this weekend.
Gilbert Hospital will close by 1 p.m. Saturday and Florence Hospital at Anthem will stop operations by 8 a.m. Monday. Both hospitals are owned by New Vision Health.
Florence Hospital at Anthem voluntarily filed for bankruptcy in 2013 and Gilbert Hospital did the same in 2014. New Vision Health came in to try and right the ship, but its efforts didn't last long. The hospitals' landlords ended the leases in February, which is also when creditor tried to collect money owed them. The creditors ultimately filed the bankruptcy in court.
Last Thursday, Maricopa County Superior court appointed a receiver, Resolute Commercial Services, to take over responsibility of the financially unstable hospitals and see if they were salvageable.
"In the long run and in sustaining the level of health care that we know from Gilbert Hospital, we were unable to find funding," said Alex Stevenson, spokesman for Resolute.
Several staff members left the hospital with their belongings packed up in boxes. Some were crying and hugging each other. Patient care technician Samantha Christie, a 5-year veteran on staff at both hospitals, was at her other job when everyone got the announcement that Gilbert Hospital was going under. A co-worker of hers sent her the bad news in a text.
"It is really heartbreaking. It’s sad. It’s been really sad all day long. It’s not easy," she said.
Resolute Commercial has been telling ambulance companies not to drop anyone off here if they can help it. Patients and their families learned of the closure Friday morning too.
"All patients are either being treated here until they’re able to safely be discharged or transferred," Stevenson said.
Christie says the loss of Gilbert Hospital will be a big one for the whole area, not just for those who lost their jobs.
"We have always a lot of patients here and they love it because there was no waiting period here," she said.
This closure process has more steps than a normal commercial business would during bankruptcy. Because the buildings are hospitals, drugs, toxic chemicals and confidential patient records all have to be secured and destroyed.
By Lokesh
