TRUMBULL COUNTY, OH - The Ohio Department of Health has given Insight Trumbull hospital the ok to reopen in phases, says Senator Bernie Moreno. 

Moreno made the announcement following a closed-door meeting with Trumbull County Commissioners Tuesday morning.

Moreno said the reopening has already begun. Moreno did say he believes the hospital will be fully operational sometime next year. 

According to a news release from an Insight spokesperson, Insight Trumbull is now open as of Tuesday to provide 24/7 emergency care, along with inpatient and outpatient services.

"We are grateful for the continued partnership of our community, staff, nurses, doctors and leaders at every level of government as we reopen," said the spokesperson within the release.

The emergency department is staffed by 40 to 50 employees, according to Insight Health Systems CEO Jawad Shah.

Shah also goes on to say that the process to reopen and staff the hospital completely will take time, and it will be done responsibly.

Absent from the meeting were either of the unions representing healthcare workers at the hospital, adding to questions about exactly what the status of the hospital's employees may be.

After learning of the reopening from a 21 News push notification, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees representative Tom Connelly, who represents the hospital's nurses, arrived at Insight Trumbull hospital and spoke to 21 News on the early stages of reopening.

"We need this hospital, and we need it to open up again. They've had some hurdles that they have to get through, and I think that they've been responding very well to it... Hopefully, we're on the right track now, but [there are] still a lot of hurdles to beat for that," said Connelly.

Of the hospital's staffed emergency department, Connelly says that roughly 18 or 20 of those employees are from the union.

"The thing that we're running into is [that] some people have jobs elsewhere and they're reluctant to give those up to come back to work here until we know the hospital's going to be stable," said Connelly.

Connelly says that hospital administration has been doing well in communicating with the nurses, and that employees would be excited to come back to work for Insight Trumbull.

"We're very excited about it, but we still tread lightly and are cautious about it because it's not completely done yet. I'd like a little more transparency for us, but maybe that's going to come now that they're officially opened," said Connelly.

Chrissy Lewis, union representative with SEIU District 1199, said Insight also did not tell her about the reopening. She said while happy they are reopened, Insight has not been following the union contract.

"As far as recalling by seniority. We’ve got management working in some positions. We’ve got some positions I have no idea who’s covering them. The information coming out of insight has been very sparse to say the least, so I’m getting a lot of my information from my workers," said Lewis.

Lewis also said the union was promised weekly meetings, but the meetings stopped after a few weeks. About 15 workers from SEIU were called back, and many are still waiting to be called back to work.

Insight first took over the hospital, along with Hillside Rehabilitation Center, in late December when they emerged suddenly as the successor to Steward Health, which filed bankruptcy last year and closed both facilities. 

After expressing initial optimism about expanding services, Insight abruptly closed its doors on March 27. Employees were placed on a six-month furlough at that time, meaning they were technically still employed through September 26.

Insight had announced plans to reopen, at least by bringing some initial staff back in the emergency department, by that date. 

An inspection from the Ohio Department of Health found numerous issues inside the building prior to that date, though, and did not permit them to move forward. 

Those issues primarily dealt with lapsed inspections for things like the water supply, the forced air system and generators. 

The hospital website briefly stated they'd reopened Saturday morning before being taken down. A spokesperson for Insight acknowledged that was a mistake and that the new site is under development. 

Moreno said those issues have now been resolved. 

Another area that's unclear is the hospital's certification for Medicare and Medicaid services, which is what allows them to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients. That lapsed on October 10 and at that time, Trumbull county commissioners and an attorney for Insight all claimed that could not be fixed until they were reopened and accepting patients, since they would need to be resurveyed with regard to the care they offer. 

Moreno is now saying they have regained certification, saying that he sent the paperwork from the Ohio Department of Health to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who in turn approved reinstating the certification. 

That development transpired in the meeting, which was held behind closed doors despite all of the commissioners being present. Ohio public meetings laws do not allow for a quorum of a public body to meet in secret unless they can point to a specific exemption under the law. None of the commissioners were able to cite a specific exemption, claiming only that the meeting was only informational and they did not contribute. 

21 News will provide updates and more detailed information as it becomes available.