A specialized unit inside Robinson Memorial Hospital for patients requiring long hospital stays to recover from serious illnesses or injuries has closed.
National specialty hospital operator Select Medical Corp. recently shuttered its Regency Hospital — its “hospital-within-a-hospital” — at Robinson.
Regency signed a 10-year lease with the Ravenna hospital in 2003 to operate a long-term acute-care hospital, also known as an LTACH. These units provide a middle ground between nursing homes and hospital intensive-care units, with patients staying an average of 25 days or longer.
To account for the increased level of care needed by their patients, these specialty hospitals get higher payments than general hospitals from Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people ages 65 or older and some younger disabled Americans.
Select decided to close its 20-bed unit inside Robinson after it “exhausted all possible options,” company spokesman Edwin Bodensiek said in an email.
Pennsylvania-based Select acquired the Ravenna location as part of its purchase of Regency Hospital Co. three years ago.
Select operates more than 100 long-term acute-care hospitals nationwide, including a 60-bed facility in Akron jointly joined with Akron General and Summa health systems.
“We are admitting patients at our nearby Akron, Barberton and Cleveland hospitals,” Bodensiek said.
All but one of the 45 employees at the Portage County location were able to relocate to other Select facilities in Northeast Ohio, Bodensiek said.
Robinson hasn’t determined how the vacated space will be used, spokeswoman Andrea Pettit said in an email.
“Robinson Memorial Hospital is currently taking this opportunity to determine if other long-term care providers would be interested in leasing the space being vacated by Regency or consider other uses for the space,” she said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.