Officials Mull Impact of Impending EORH Closure
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The city's emergency medical services are trying to determine which emergency room patients will be taken to after East Ohio Regional Hospital closes and Interstate 70 is under repair.
During a recent Martins Ferry City Council meeting, Service Director Scott Porter said local and state officials are trying to determine the best way to lessen the impact of future I-70 work in West Virginia on emergency medical transports.
Porter said EMS officials are concerned because they will not be able to quickly reach Wheeling Hospital's emergency room during construction. They are considering transporting patients to Reynolds Memorial Hospital's ER in Glen Dale or, at times, to Barnesville Hospital's ER.
The concern comes on the heels of Alecto Healthservices' announcement that it plans to close both EORH in Martins Ferry and Ohio Valley Medical Center in Wheeling. This could occur as soon as Oct. 7.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filings show a total of 1,079 workers from both EORH and OVMC will be looking for new jobs because of the closures.
Porter said he, Martins Ferry City Council President Kristine Davis and Martins Ferry EMS Director Dave Snyder recently attended a meeting led by West Virginia Department of Transportation and Ohio County officials.
"Due to the closure of bridges on I-70 this not only affects West Virginia, but us in Ohio also. On our end, there will be more transportation time to get to the hospital with ambulances," Porter said. "They are going to have bridge work starting at the state line all the way to The Highlands. This is going to be a concern. We're looking at basically one lane all the way through. Some days the interstate will be shut down."
The project to reconstruct two bridges near the Wheeling Tunnel is expected to begin early next year.
"Ohio County and the contractor is trying to develop some kind of communication system," he said. "People who are in dire need, sometimes you don't have the extra minutes."
Mutual aid is another issue that must be considered. Porter said if EMS is doing a long transport the city would need to be covered by another medical service or maybe even need to hire additional personnel to stay behind for other calls.
"This is all preliminary. … We have some more meetings with West Virginia Department of Transportation to find out more and to keep up to date on all of this," Porter added.