The fight to save several Steward-owned hospitals in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys is continuing with an agreement in the works that could keep all these hospitals open.

Steward and Medical Properties Trust (MPT) have reached a verbal agreement that would keep all Steward facilities outside of Massachusetts up and running if signed on September 10.

Meanwhile, MPT would assume operating cost while they switch to new owners.

While it's not clear who the new owners of the hospitals in Mahoning Valley could be at this time, attorneys say they fully intend to keep them open while waiting to accept bids.

In the Shenango Valley, a bankruptcy judge gave potential buyers until Friday, August 30 to come up with the funds to buy Sharon Regional Medical Center.

Steward could not tell us if that deadline was met since it's up to the bankruptcy court and Steward has not heard from them as of this writing. Steward tells us details on potential buyers could come next week.

In the meantime, a hearing will be held Tuesday to discuss the extending the closure deadline for Trumbull Regional Medical Center and Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Warren.

21 News reached out to union reps, along with city and county leaders for reaction. 

Trumbull County commissioner Niki Frenchko says she's relieved to hear word of an in-principle agreement that would save the hospitals. Frenchko tells us she's proud of the work that's been done to get to this point.

"It was an all hands on deck moment," she said. "We had businesspeople, doctors, hospital workers, patients, union people and people from across the aisles politically all coming together."

When asked what she'd like to see happen next, Frenchko said "we need to make sure the money is all secured and that we have more money for operating. We need to engage our state government to have them contribute the funds in the large amount. Probably 20 or 30 million dollars would be helpful."

While the in-principle agreement hasn't been inked on paper, and new owners haven't been finalized, Frenchko is confident this critical step is one that will ultimately seal the deal.

"I think we can all breathe a temporary sigh of relief and have a good weekend for the holiday and not have that on us. It's great!"