Community leaders in Mercer County say they're working on a plan to try to bring Sharon Regional Hospital back to life.

Penn Northwest Development met with stakeholders this morning, but they're being very careful about what they'll say.

21 News knows it involves money and we know that not everyone is on board yet. 

Rod Wilt, Penn Northwest Development Corporation executive director, said those in the meeting are planning to offer financial support for the hospital.

Wilt said significant progress was made in firming up financial support for the hospital. He would not say yet if that means looking for a new buyer, but did say it would be premature to think Tenor is out of the picture just yet. 

Wilt is waiting for everyone involved to approve funding before making a collective announcement.

This meeting is days after Medical Properties Trust said they couldn’t move forward with their deal with Tenor Health to reopen the hospital because of the Buhl Legacy Trust’s claims against Steward and MPT.

MPT sent this statement, doubling down on not moving forward with reopening the hospital.

“MPT has been and will continue doing our part to reopen Sharon Hospital. Over the years, we have invested nearly $30 million into Sharon Hospital, including funding several large projects such as pharmacy upgrades and a catheter lab replacement. We have offered more than $10 million in new funding to help the new operator restart operations and consented to significant rent deferrals. The Buhl Trust is the only party that refuses to work in good faith towards a resolution, and MPT simply cannot and will not invest millions more dollars before they waive their baseless claims.”  

During this time of limbo, many in Mercer County are without healthcare. 

Because they are receiving a higher volume of calls, UPMC created a hotline for people who have any questions about changing over their healthcare. 

“We’ve received numerous calls from folks who are trying to find appointments to access new primary care physicians, get their lab work and testing done, and some of them are having trouble navigating through our services, so we thought it would be easier to create one, central phone line,”  said Zachary Lenhart, vice president of operations at UPMC Horizon and UPMC Jameson. “Our role in this is really to make sure that our patients and community  members have access to care. And that's the purpose of setting up this phone line is just an easy button for them to do that and for us to be here to help them navigate that.”

The number for the UPMC Care Continuation hotline is 724 - 994 - 4747, and is available Monday through Friday during working hours.

The phone line is for anyone, regardless if they are a UPMC patient or not.