“This educational forum will allow Premier to explain why they are closing Good Samaritan Hospital and it gives community members an opportunity to give input as to why they shouldn’t close the hospital,” the Dayton Unit NAACP stated in a press release.
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It will be the first public forum with Premier leadership since the health network announced its plans to close the hospital by the end of the year. Good Sam’s closing will move about 1,600 jobs out of northwest Dayton and follows years of businesses and jobs shifting out of the surrounding primarily black neighborhoods.
Premier announced in January that it would close the 85-year-old hospital as part of a three-year strategic plan. At the time of the announcement, Premier said declining hospital stays, the declining population around the hospital and high expense of keeping the campus up to code were among reasons for the closing.
The health network plans to tear the main Philadelphia Drive campus down and turn it into a shovel ready site for redevelopment.
RELATED: Local leaders ‘saddened’ by announced hospital closing
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