Photo by NIAMH COOMEY A sign directs people to different departments at East Ohio Regional Hospital. The hospital announced it is closing its long term care facility.

MARTINS FERRY — In the most recent update to a flurry of cuts, East Ohio Regional Hospital plans to meet with the Belmont County auditor to address “backdated taxes.”

EORH administration announced to employees by email Monday that it will be shuttering its long term care and skilled nursing facilities just a week after its employees lost health insurance coverage.

In an email to employees Monday afternoon, Chief Medical Officer David Shaffer said the administration will be meeting with the Belmont County auditor to “figure out the issues regarding the backdated taxes.”

“I am doing everything I can to make sure that everybody continues to have a job here at East Ohio Regional Hospital,” the email states.

According to an earlier email obtained from an EORH employee, the hospital is working to relocate residents of the long term care facility and assist employees with transferring their employment elsewhere. The long term care and skilled nursing facility “will remain fully staffed while placement arrangements are being coordinated to ensure quality care for the residents and appropriate support for their families and caregivers,” the email from Chief Operating Officer Julie Ross states.

That message also urges employees to notify the hospital’s Human Resources department if they are interested in any positions listed on the company’s “careers” page online.

A week ago, EORH employees’ insurance coverage with The Health Plan was terminated due to “financial obligations not being met” by the hospital, according to an email from the Health Plan to an employee.

This is far from the first hardship EORH has faced.

EORH and Ohio Valley Medical Center were both shut down in 2019 under oversight of former President and CEO Daniel Dunmyer due to a reported combined $37 million loss over two years and other factors. The closures put around 1,200 people out of work. At the time, both hospitals — EORH in Martins Ferry and OVMC in Wheeling — were owned by Alecto Healthcare Services.

Psychiatrist and entrepreneur Dr. John Johnson bought the Eastern Ohio hospital in 2020, posturing himself as a local leader seeking to invest in the future of the Ohio Valley. Johnson said in a 2021 interview that his reopening of the hospital would help provide care to a medically underserved community.

In 2021, Johnson also announced his intention to turn the former downtown Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel building into a 110-unit apartment complex. However there has been no known movement on construction on the project, which remains under ownership of Johnson’s LLC, Access Infrastructure.

Gov. Mike DeWine applauded Johnson’s previous work with other health care facilities and called his reopening of EORH “a miracle.”

EORH did see some updates under Johnson’s leadership, such as the addition of a cardiac catheterization lab in 2023.

Then, in 2024, former COO Bernie Albertini resigned soon after it was reported that some EORH employees received their paychecks late. Albertini, now serving on the Ohio County School Board, attributed the delayed checks to a payroll processing issue with Unified Bank.

When Ross took on the COO role, she claimed her predecessor’s resignation was unrelated to the payroll issue.

EORH administrators have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the upcoming facility closures and recent termination of employee insurance.