Ellwood City Medical Center CEO Resigns Amid Closure, Unpaid Bills And Lay Offs
ELWOOD CITY (KDKA) -- Things keep getting worse for Ellwood City Medical Center.
The CEO of the hospital, Grant White, resigned on Monday, the latest in a dark chapter surrounding the hospital.
The emergency room was shut down last week by the State Department of Health after serious violations.
Sources told KDKA a CT scan machine malfunctioned at the hospital and the area was evacuated.
Days later, nearly 100 people were also laid off.
"We're going to fight this tooth and nail," Ellwood mayor Anthony Court said. "We're going to try and save this hospital at all costs."
The hospital has been a cornerstone of the community since 1920 and had more than 450 employees at one time.
In a borough council meeting on Monday night, Court, as well as former borough manager Dom Viccari, blamed the hospital's ownership Americore and White.
"His history isn't good. I don't believe he should have been granted this hospital in the first place," Court said.
"Grant White has prostituted every hospital he's been involved with," Viccarri said.
White and Americore have been investigated before for non-payment of employees.
Court said the same thing happened at Americore facilities in Kentucky and Virginia.
The mayor also wants the court of common pleas judge who approved the sale of the hospital in 2007 to intervene.
In the meantime, the borough is going to send out its own termination notice for unpaid electrical bills at the medical center.
The deadline to pay $50,000 toward unpaid electric bills was missed by the owners of the hospital.