LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WKBW) — Eastern Niagara Hospital has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to hospital officials.
The hospital announced it will continue to provide services at its main hospital in Lockport and at its outpatient site on South Transit Road. The hospital reports they will be closing the inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric services Transitions Unit, which will impact about 20 employees.
In a release the hospital states:
Filing for Chapter 11 protection for debt restructuring enables ENH to move forward with its sustainable business model, maintain jobs in the community and continue to provide high quality health care and critical services for patients in the community. The Hospital will still continue to analyze and refine operations, repositioning when needed, but ENH will emerge from the reorganization process in a stronger financial position.
“This filing and reorganization of debt is necessary. The Hospital has always met payroll, but it cannot overcome a number of the financial burdens that were incurred over the past ten years. Through much analysis over the past year, it has been determined that ENH cannot get to break even with service line closures alone; therefore, Chapter 11 reorganization is necessary,” said ENH President and CEO Anne McCaffrey. “It is imperative that the community understand that the Hospital will continue to offer essential hospital services. We have a responsibility to the community and the organization to be sustainable well into the future. The Hospital needs to restructure its debt and cease providing services that are no longer financially viable. It is unfortunate, yet like many other businesses, the decision to restructure cannot be avoided.”
ENH ended other services earlier in the year.
