SHARON, Pa. - Sharon City Manager Bob Fiscus has made his voice heard on the closure of Sharon Regional Medical Center on Monday.

Fiscus shared a statement on behalf of the City of Sharon Monday morning, saying he is "deeply disappointed" with the "unnecessary" closure of the hospital.

"While we recognize that the city and its partners are not the decision makers in this matter, we have committed ourselves to advocating for accessible healthcare, the well-being of our dedicated healthcare professionals and the ability of our local economy," Fiscus said.

Fiscus went on to say the city will continue to lend its support to those engaged in efforts to reopen the hospital and says he remains optimistic that those efforts will succeed.

This statement comes shortly after Sharon Regional employees were called to the hospital for a meeting on unemployment and to gather their belongings Monday morning. 

21 News asked Fiscus if the agreement in principle between Tenor Health and the hospital's landlord, Medical Properties Trust, is still on the table. Fiscus declined to respond.

The hospital stopped accepting new patients as of Sunday, January 5 and had released all of its former patients. The hospital also began diverting incoming ambulances to other hospitals beginning Sunday.

In the meantime, Sharon Regional employees will still be paid until February 14 and will continue to work in the facility. Sharon Regional Chief Medical Officer Nick Abbott tells 21 News he's hopeful that some of those employees will be able to be retained if the hospital can reopen.

Abbott went on to say he understands that city officials are still working on a deal with Tenor Health to purchase the hospital. 21 News reached out to several city officials groups that attended meetings about saving the hospital had to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) about what was discussed.

The hospital's locked doors did not top efforts to save the hospital. The CEO of Yates Medical Group said he's hoping to reopen the hospital, but needs approval from Commonwealth before moving forward.

Dr. Robert Multari, the Mercer County doctor offering resources to help save the hospital is also continuing to speak to doctors about investing in the hospital.

"If anybody needs to come forward first, it needs to be the hospital based doctors over there, especially the surgeons because that’s where their livelihood is, and for them to go back to work, they’re going to need to come forward," said Multari.

Multari is also asking other counties to step up.

"It’s not a Sharon hospital, it’s a Shenango Valley hospital and the surrounding Mercer County area hospital, and I think all the municipalities need to step forward and try to drum up funds," said Multari. "[We] anticipated already that there was going to be a closing, so we tried to prepare ourselves for it."

21 News also caught up with UPMC Horizon in the neighboring City of Farrell, who told us the hospital has already been seeing a higher patient volume in recent months and is expanding its emergency department to meet that demand.

Representatives from UPMC told us while Horizon is smaller than Sharon Regional, UPMC still believes they can step up to the plate between their three hospitals in the region including Farrell, New Castle and Greenville.

However, one thing UPMC currently lacks compared to Sharon Regional is a behavioral health department. UPMC tells us they do plan to expand and add a behavioral health center.

However, this would only be for adults, while Sharon Regional's offered behavioral health care for adults and adolescents.

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