George Nelson, Youngstown Business Journal, September 28, 2010

Youngstown - Bargaining units represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees approved agreements Monday with Community Health Systems Inc., which is moving toward finalizing its purchase of the assets of Forum Health Inc. by Friday.

Youngstown Vindicator, September 27, 2010 Youngstown - Forum Health’s largest union approved an agreement with Community Health Systems Monday night, paving the way for the company’s likely acquisition of the bankrupt hospital system later this week. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents more than 1,200 registered nurses and workers at Trumbull Memorial Hospital and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, voted overwhelmingly to ratify the union’s contracts with CHS, union officials said. ... AFSCME

Grace Wyler & Ashley Luthern, Youngstown Vindicator, September 21, 2010 Youngstown - The state attorney general has given the green light to the sale of Forum Health to Tennessee-based Community Health Systems - the same day that a nurses’ union approved a contract with CHS - effectively sealing the fate of the embattled hospital system. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced Monday that he has no objection to CHS’ $120 million purchase of Forum, a decision that signals the possible end to an 18-month bankruptcy saga. ... AG

Larry Ringler, Warren Tribune Chronicle, August 1, 2010 The merger was billed as Trumbull Memorial Hospital's best chance of avoiding a takeover by a larger, outside hospital system so it could remain locally owned. But that's exactly what may occur this month as the Forum Health system formed by the July 1997 merger of Trumbull Memorial and Western Reserve Care System in Youngstown goes on the block Thursday. In what is widely seen as making the best of a grim situation, lead bidder Ardent Health Services, a for-profit system in Nashville, Tennessee, will try to seal the deal for nonprofit Forum for $69.8 million Thursday in the downtown Cleveland office of Forum legal firm McDonald Hopkins. ... Hospitals

Labor strife, lawsuit targeting CHS raise concerns in Valley. Grace Wyler, Youngstown Vindicator, August 1, 2010 As the deadline approaches to submit bids for the bankrupt Forum Health, a potential second bidder has yet to publicly announce whether it intends to make an offer. Bids for Forum, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2009, must be submitted to the court by Tuesday, and an auction is scheduled for Thursday. The court hearing on the sale takes place August 10. Community Health Systems - a Fortune 500 company that reported $12.1 billion in revenue last year - emerged earlier this month as a potential buyer for the health system ... Potential

Forum moving closer to sale. Warren Tribune Chronicle, May 29, 2010 The union representing 480 nurses at Forum Health Northside Medical Center ratified an intent agreement Friday with the bankrupt health care system's potential buyer. Eric Williams, president of the Ohio Nurses Association/Youngstown General Duty Nurses Association, said because of a confidentiality agreement, he could not discuss specifics of the contract. "Over the last two days, members of the YGDNA met and considered a final offer from Ardent Inc., and union members voted in favor of it," Williams said. He declined to say how many members voted or the margin of passage. ... Northside

Ohio Nurses Association, April 15, 2010 The Ohio Nurses Association is urging lawmakers to pass legislation aimed at preventing violence in the workplace. Violent acts in the workplace occur frequently in the nursing profession. A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing found that three-quarters of nurses providing private and public care experienced workplace violence. ... Association

Jeff Piorkowski, Cleveland Sun News, February 4, 2010 “Get a nationwide healthcare plan passed.” That was the message that floated in and out of an address given January 25 at Ursuline College by Rebecca Patton, president of the 2.9-million-member (sic) American Nurses Association. Patton spoke to about 150 nursing students and medical professionals from around the area in the college’s Daly Building. “I think every nurse needs to take a more active role in the discussions over healthcare reform,” Patton said to Sun News shortly after completing her speech. “At the end of the day, it’s really nurses who are at the front line of health care." ... Head

George Nelson, Youngstown Business Journal, October 22, 2009

Youngstown - Unions blasted plans by Forum Health Inc. to lay off 52 employees as the health care system seeks a bankruptcy judge’s permission to pay its former CEO for consulting services - a proposal that Walter J. Pishkur says he will discuss at a news conference this morning.

Alicia Castelli, Chronicle-Telegram, September 2, 2009 Lorain - A three-year pact providing for raises for nurses at Community Regional Medical Center took effect Tuesday. The Service Employees International Union District 1199 and the hospital had been negotiating for one month before reaching an agreement last week.“Both Community Regional Medical Center and the Service Employees International Union recognize that these are difficult economic times,” said Ed Oley, president of Community Health Partners, the hospital’s parent corporation. ... Nurses

Michael D. McElwain, The Review, May 27, 2009 East Liverpool - Negotiations between a nurses' labor union and East Liverpool City Hospital administrators is underway with delicate maneuvering on both sides even amid continuing talks and a looming deadline. Hospital officials and Ohio Nurses Association (ONA) union representatives were being tight-lipped about the discussions, but sources who did not wish to be identified have indicated the union issued a 10-day strike notice last week, and hospital administrators have cobbled together contingency plans. ... Nurses

The communication lines remain open between Forum and its unions. Youngstown Vindicator, May 22, 2009 Youngstown - A bankruptcy court filing asking that union contracts be modified is “not on the front burner,” said Walter Pishkur, president and chief executive officer of Forum Health. Pishkur said Thursday that negotiations in which the hospital system is seeking concessions from its union employees are going well and likely will continue over the weekend and into next week. Pishkur said Forum, which recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize, still has the option of going to court to ask that the contract be modified. ... Talks

The TMH nurses union is no longer willing to discuss concessions. William k. Alcorn, Youngstown Vindicator, March 6, 2009 Warren - The executive board of the nurses union at Trumbull Memorial Hospital has taken a vote of “no confidence” regarding the abilities of Forum Health’s chief executive officer and board of trustees to guide the health system and reverse its financial problems. In a statement Thursday, Thomas Connelly, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2026, said the “time for insisting this financial burden to be shouldered by Forum employees, both union and nonunion, should come to an end.” ... Nurses

Chris Seper, MedCity News, March 18, 2009 Ohio’s chapter of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, which for the last two years has operated out of volunteers’ home offices, today opened an official brick-and-mortar location in suburban Cleveland where it will coordinate activity for the entire state. The office in Independence will operate with one full-time staff member and a handful of volunteers to manage roughly 2,000 active members - the bulk of whom are in the Cleveland and Dayton areas. ... California

Chris Seper, MedCity News, February 24, 2009 The combination last week of three nursing unions has emboldened some of its supporters in Ohio, though it’s likely to remain an uphill climb to promote an agenda that includes codified nurse-to-patient ratios. The new 150,000-member organization - made up of the United American Nurses, Massachusetts Nurses Association and California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee - creates the largest nurse’s union ever. It will be affiliated with the AFL-CIO and be known as the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee. ... Nurse-union