A last ditch legal challenge to stop the changes scheduled to go into effect today at Allegheny General Hospital - Suburban Campus is running into challenges of its own. Attorneys for West Penn Allegheny Health System and the Suburban General Hospital Advisory Board were in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas Thursday, appearing before Judge Ronald Folino.

At issue was whether the court should issue an injunction stopping the hospital from closing its emergency room and inpatient units, and whether the group asking for the injunction had any legal right to do so.

The lawsuit was filed last Friday by the recently revived advisory board, which lists four officers and members: current Bellevue Borough treasurer and former mayor Paul Cusick, local florist Ed Dietz, retired Ben Avon Heights attorney Thomas Jackson, and former funeral home owner James Pinkerton. Cusick and Dietz signed the complaint filed against WPAHS.

The advisory board was created in 1994 when what was then Suburban General Hospital entered into an affiliation agreement with WPAHS. It has not even held meetings in a number of years, and attorneys for WPAHS argue that the board does not even legally exist because Suburban General Hospital itself was eliminated when it formally merged with Allegheny General in 2005.

The complaint filed by the advisory board refers to the 1994 affiliation agreement, which mandated that inpatient and emergency room services be maintained at Suburban General. It argues that the North Boroughs will suffer irreparable harm if WPAHS is allowed to restructure the Suburban Campus.

Attorneys for WPAHS have filed objections to the complaint, asking that court find that the advisory board ceased to exist by operation of law when Suburban General officially became part of WPAHS.

The legal arguments come on the eve of implementation of the changes at the Suburban Campus. The inpatient census has been decreased over the months since the restructuring was announced, and the emergency department is set to become an urgent care center -- staffed by the same personnel, according to hospital sources -- on Saturday. Other changes include eliminating outpatient surgeries at the Suburban Campus, but augmenting other outpatient services offered. Long-term acute care beds will be increased.

Because many of the new services being offered at the Suburban Campus come from private corporations, as opposed to the nonprofit hospital itself, Bellevue is expected to received an undetermined amount of property and business tax revenue from the changes.

Hospital president and chief executive officer Gregory Burfitt, in an Aug. 9 letter, commented on the lawsuit:

“Members of West Penn Allegheny’s executive team and board of directors have met with this self-appointed group to underscore the necessity of the changes we are making at Suburban General. Nonetheless, the group has chosen a legal confrontation rather than continuing constructive dialogue on how best to serve the community.”

Hospital officials have stated that if WPAHS did not consolidate services within its hospitals and make the proposed changes, the Suburban Campus could be closed.

Editor's Note: As of late Thursday afternoon, a settlement had been reached by the parties to the lawsuit, and the proposed changes at Suburban Campus will go into effect as planned.]