Signs posted at entrances to East Ohio Regional Hospital inform potential patients and visitors that the facility is closed and direct them to seek care at another local hospital.

MARTINS FERRY — East Ohio Regional Hospital officially ceased operations and closed its doors Thursday.

Signs posted at hospital entrances Thursday evening informed potential patients and visitors that the facility had closed and that they should seek health care at another local hospital.

“HOSPITAL CLOSED!” the signs state. “PLEASE GO TO THE NEAREST HOSPITAL TRINITY, REYNOLDS, OR WHEELING!”

In addition, dispatchers at the Martins Ferry CIty Building said they had received a call from the EORH emergency room telling them to direct any ambulances transporting patients to a different area hospital. The dispatch staff said the facility selected would depend on the patient’s condition and needs, as well as whether any local hospitals are diverting patients because of staffing or overcrowding.

Hospital employees also received a letter from human resources Director Rick Oliver, informing them of the “difficult” decision to close the emergency department –seemingly the last operational portion of the hospital.

Oliver pointed to a recent resignation that he said made it impossible to keep that department open.

The facility previously announced closure of its long-term care and skilled nursing facility and its pharmacy. It failed to make payroll on March 7, and employees at the site on Thursday said they still had not received any of the wages owed at that time.

Today marks another scheduled payday, and employees said they had little hope that they would receive any current or past due payroll.

“We know that there are questions about your paychecks,” Oliver wrote to all staff. “As we collect funds, we intend to pay any back wages which you are owed. Any paychecks still due from before Friday, March 14, 2025 should be paid in the near future.”

Oliver wrote that employees who are laid off should expect to receive their final pay within 30 days of their last day of employment. He added that the hospital is working to catch up on any unpaid health insurance claims after The Health Plan discontinued its coverage for hospital staff due to nonpayment.

“The premiums previously deducted from your paychecks have all been paid to the former Third Party Administrator as they have always been and were not diverted to other Hospital expenses as some people have incorrectly speculated,” Oliver noted.

Oliver cited limited cash flow for many of the hospital’s struggles, saying that its accounts receivable are “extensive,” but collections have lagged.

“In other words, the Hospital has not yet been paid for many of the services it has provided over the past year and that is why we have been struggling financially,” the letter states.

He added that the hospital continues to seek financing and is working to secure a buyer.

“Although we received recent interest from a credible hospital system that could potentially purchase the Hospital — as long as we remained open as a going concern — that entity could not act in time to begin, let alone complete, the discussions necessary to meet payroll and keep our Hospital open in light of our limited cash flow.”

He wrote that the facility received another inquiry from a potential investor, but he didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up due to other recent failures.

Several vehicles came and went from the hospital on Thursday evening. Some of the people entering and leaving the facility wore shirts bearing the hospital’s logo or name badges, scrubs and even a stethoscope in one case. Employees who did comment on the situation declined to provide their identities. One woman who carried a box to a vehicle across the street asked media on site to remember that the closing was hard on the staff but declined to make any further comment.

A passerby, Sondra Shrieve who lives just outside the city, said she works as a nurse in Moundsville today but got her start at EORH. She first worked there as an aide, then as a therapist before studying to become a nurse.

She said a friend who worked at EORH has continued to report to work without getting paid. The friend did not receive her schedule for Thursday’s shift, Shrieve said. She added that her children and grandchildren are all patients of the Martins Ferry hospital.

“I just love this place,” she said. “I could cry.”

Shrieve, who termed the situation “sickening,” said her daughter recently hosted the family of a friend who worked in the kitchen at EORH for dinner after the hospital employees did not receive their paychecks. She added that one of her own friends who worked in the Emergency Department told her the hospital has been “swamped.”

“Times are hard. You know, I can’t imagine not getting my paycheck,” Shrieve continued. “So the electric company don’t care that you didn’t get a paycheck.”

Efforts to contact Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies for comment on the closure late Thursday were unsuccessful. During a council meeting Wednesday, Davies had said such a closure would be a “huge deal,” citing a lack of available health care in the city along with the loss of tax revenue and patrons for local businesses that it would bring.