Workforce Administrator with Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services Mike Schlanz addressed around 15 former EORH employees Thursday morning. Photo by Niamh Coomey.

The Belmont County Department of Job and Family Services held a “Rapid Response Meeting” Thursday morning for former employees of East Ohio Regional Hospital, which closed without notice on March 20, leaving hundreds without jobs.

At the event, held in the gymnasium of the Martins Ferry Recreation Center, speakers walked former employees through navigating the unemployment process while they look for another job. Attendees also had the opportunity to network with representatives from several healthcare facilities in the area with open positions.

Maxim Health Care, Northwood Health Systems and Ohio Hills Health Centers were just a few of the organizations with booths set up and representatives available to talk about job opportunities with former EORH employees.

Workforce Administrator with Belmont County DJFS Mike Schlanz noted the considerable job loss that the closure of the hospital brought about in the region.

“It had such a significant impact on Belmont County and the valley in general. You’re talking roughly 500 employees who lost their job due to a closure,” he said.

Usually, there is more notice about a closure of this size and DJFS staff are able to hold meetings with employees on-site before they lose their jobs. EORH’s closure made providing resources to employees more challenging because it was so sudden, Schlanz said.

“Typically we have a heads up that a place is closing,” he said. “Here with EORH, everything happened so quickly, we couldn’t get information from the hospital, we had no notice, so we had no way to contact the employees directly about this meeting so we just did the best we could through word of mouth and some media to get the word out.”

Schlanz said the closure is “devastating” but that they are available to help former employees find employment and move forward.

“There’s people that worked there for several years, some might have worked for the hospital when it closed the first time, lost their job and went back to work,” he said. “That’s a lot of people, 500 people, I just hope they all can land on their feet and find employment but that’s what we’re here for.”

Ohio Hills Health Centers was one of the organizations represented at Thursday’s meeting.

Marketing assistant Tracy Amos said they wanted to show up to let former EORH employees know that they have positions open and that they offer patient discount programs for employees at their six locations.

“First of all we express our sincere condolences to staff for the loss of employment,” Amos said. “We’re always hiring. Feel free to look at our website.”

Schlanz reminded former EORH employees about DJFS’ upcoming job fair on May 1 at the Ohio Valley Mall, which may be able to connect them with employment opportunities.