Impoverished Ohio city to lose vital hospital

Proximity to a hospital can make a life or death difference for people in a community.

For 75 years, the sick and injured in East Cleveland have come to their local Huron Hospital for help.

Among them is Hank Smith, a local man who was shot seven years ago by drug dealers on the way home from his job helping veterans.

Smith told CBS News, "I just thank God that that hospital was there at the time, because I really don't think I would have made it."

But the hospital won't be there for long.

CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reported the impoverished community was shocked to learn the news that the hospital's parent company, The Cleveland Clinic, was closing Huron down in a matter of weeks.

East Cleveland's mayor, Gary Norton, said he couldn't believe his ears.

In a City Hall meeting he said, "What do we do when someone knocks on the door and nobody comes? They just lie there and die?"

Norton told CBS News, "We had the rug pulled out from under us; we believed we had a long-term commitment."

With good reason, says Bowers: Huron Hospital president Dr. Gus Kious had invested millions in state-of-the-art technology which, like much of the hospital, goes largely unused.

Kious blames the dwindling use of his hospital on the dwindling population of East Cleveland - it's down by a third in the last 10 years. Adding insult to injury, Huron's patients are primarily poor, mainly relying on Medicaid or Medicare.

Kious said, "Only nine percent of our total is insured population, which is a, you know -- you can't run a hospital with that kind of payer mix."

Cleveland Clinic chief executive officer Toby Cosgrove says pulling the plug was the only option.

Choosing to shutter a hospital is, he told Bowers, "a difficult decision. But you have to do the right thing for the patients' care, and you have to be, understand that you are the steward of a community resource, and you have to use that resource wisely."

Cosgrove points to 17 hospital closures in Cleveland over the last few decades, but East Cleveland's mayor sees a troubling trend.

Norton said, "Hospitals typically don't close in wealthy areas, where populations are relatively well-insured. It is people in areas where the population is a little bit poorer" where hospitals close.

The Cleveland Clinic isn't entirely abandoning East Cleveland, Bowers noted. The organization is opening a
$25 million health center that will offer primary care and focus on preventive care for chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes.

Bowers asked Kious how scared people in the community are of the next phase.

Kious said, "Well, the people that we serve are used to being disappointed."

Longtime resident Hank Smith couldn't disagree more.

"East Cleveland is a strong community, and we're doing everything we can to survive. And losing this hospital, I think is, is putting a nail in our coffin."

Bowers noted there's talk of a lawsuit challenging the closure. but few expect the outcome to change -- just one more loss in a city that's been on the losing end all too often.

"Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge added that the Cleveland Clinic promises to provide free transportation from East Cleveland for patients who need hospital care at their main facility, which is about three miles from Huron.