MARTINS FERRY, Ohio (WTRF)
East Ohio Regional Hospital is coming back to life.
It will open soon with 70 beds, and will add a 40-bed psychiatric unit by June.
There are employees wearing scrubs everywhere you look.
More than 400 people have been hired, or in many cases, re-hired.
The mood is joyful.
And a determined group of clergy members who held prayer vigils when the hospital closed in July 2019 were back today with a new message.
They anointed the hands of the employees with oil, saying “Yours are the hands that push the X-ray machines, yours are the hands that do the healing.”
Hospital CEO and administrator Bernie Albertini said the new owner, Dr. John Johnson, has already invested $18 million into physical infrastructure improvements.
They say they don’t have a solid reopening date, but it will be soon.
