TRUMBULL COUNTY, OH - 21 News told you last month that the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) found "significant" issues that need to be fixed before Insight can reopen the hospital in Trumbull county. 

As Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull is days away from losing its Medicare accreditation, ODH has released the report for its inspection of the hospital.

The report shows that Insight is behind on multiple inspections including fire alarms, water quality and the hospital's boiler system. None had been inspected since just before Insight took over at the end of last year.

Insight must address all these issues before reopening.

Trumbull County Commissioner Rick Hernandez said the Ohio Department of Health is supposed to revisit the hospital this week.

“ODH is supposed to be here probably sometime today or within, you know, the next few days, to see those deficiencies. And, you know, see that Insight is able to work with them to get these deficiencies rectified,” said Hernandez. “Primarily it's on ODH. If they could get that go ahead with ODH now, they can open ASAP.”

Once getting approval from ODH, Hernandez said the Warren hospital will be able to reopen. 

In addition to the ODH issues, Insight is also set to lose Medicare accreditation October 10. This would affect both Insight Hospital & Medical Center Trumbull and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital, which is also operated by Insight. 

That means if and when they begin accepting patients, they'll be limited to private insurance only. Since the reasons for losing Medicare certification have to do with not having any patients, they'll need to attract some in order to get restored. 

“The reason why that licensing was lost was because they weren't open to serve the patients. You need to be able to serve those patients to be able to have that type of a license,” said Hernandez.

With the addition of the Amazon Warehouse, Kimberly Clark and the changes coming to the Foxconn facility, Hernandez said reopening the hospital is necessary.

“You're going to add at least another 2,000 jobs to the employee pool in this area, and we are going to, we do definitely need adequate hospitals to provide that service that the residents deserve,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez has continued to stay in contact with Insight. He said despite the hurdles, he feels optimistic about the hospital reopening.

An Insight representative said Insight is expected to have an update later this week. ODH has not confirmed dates for future inspections with Insight.

In the meantime, Holly Gross with Insight's legal counsel said ODH quickly responded to its request and conducted an on-site review of its corrective action plan. While Insight is still waiting on the formal report, Gross said initial feedback was positive.

"We anticipate that only a few minor and manageable actions will be required before we can begin seeing patients," Gross said.

Gross went on to say the hospital must be operational for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to conduct its on-site survey, which is a prerequisite for Medicare/Medicaid provider approval. The deadline for this is October 9.

In the meantime, Gross says a limited number of employees have been participating in virtual training sessions, and they're expected to be called back to work within the next day or so.