By Melissa Klaric
The Herald
SHARON, Pa. — As part of closing procedures for Sharon Regional Health System, an ambulance crew is stationed in the emergency room 24 hours a day through Sunday.
“We are there just in case anyone from the community needs medical attention, we will get them to the right facility,” said Courtney Ivan, director of operations and paramedic for Hermitage-based Elite EMS.
Sharon Regional president Bob Rogalski asked the team to cover the ER for a week in case anyone walks through the doors needing care. Elite is being paid for their services.
“We have an ALS (Advanced Life Support) truck there 24/7 to get people where they need to go by ambulance,” Ivan said.
They got a few people walking through the doors on their first day being set up in the ER, but since then, it has been pretty slow, Ivan said.
“We have not had to render aid,” Ivan said. “We’ve just directed people straight to the ambulance and transferred them to a facility that is appropriate for them.”
Sharon Regional closed on Monday. The bankrupt Steward Health Care closed the hospital because a buyer had not yet stepped up.
U.S. bankruptcy judge Christopher M. Lopez, who is overseeing Steward’s case in Texas, gave the closure with his approval.
Sharon Regional is one of the area’s oldest institutions. Established in 1893, the hospital opened its doors in 1896 — two years before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. The hospital started as the Christian H. Buhl Hospital, then became Sharon General Hospital in 1949. In 1990, the hospital was renamed Sharon Regional Health System. It was sold to the for-profit Steward in 2014.
A partnership of government and community organizations did come together Thursday and pledged $10 million to Tenor Health Sharon LLC to help it reopen of the hospital. No opening date has been set.
The city of Sharon and Mercer County commissioners each approved extending a $500,000 grant to Tenor. The Buhl Regional Health Foundation joined in as the largest contributor with an amount said to be in the millions. Other partners include the cities of Hermitage and Farrell, the Community Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio , Penn-Northwest Development Corp. and the Sharon Community Development Corp.
The pledges are contingent upon the reopening of the hospital, but Sharon City Manager Bob Fiscus, unofficial spokesperson for the community partners, said a timeline has not yet been set for the reopening. Fiscus did say he thought the hospital would be open soon.
Ivan wanted to make sure the community understands the EMS feels the stress of the closing along with the employees and community.
“The community is our number one concern,” Ivan said. “We just want people to be kind to each other. UPMC is trying to absorb what they can.”
(c)2025 The Herald (Sharon,Pa)
Visit The Herald (Sharon,Pa) at www.sharonherald.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
