photo by: Gage Vota

MARTINS FERRY — East Ohio Hometown Pharmacy, located within East Ohio Regional Hospital, will be closing its doors for good on March 28, according to the pharmacy’s outgoing voicemail message and a letter sent out to customers.

This is the latest update in a series of financial woes and closures at the struggling hospital, starting with the shuttering of its long-term care and skilled nursing facilities in February.

This means the pharmacy will no longer be able to fill new prescriptions or refill existing ones.

According to the letter, staff members are no longer present at the pharmacy to speak with customers, but they will answer voicemails within three business days to help customers transfer their prescriptions to a new pharmacy. The letter to customers urged them to leave a voicemail message with their name, date of birth and preferred location for prescriptions to be transferred.

“The pharmacy thanks you for your trust in allowing us to care for your prescription needs and it is with great sadness that we announce this decision,” the letter to customers states.

It has been almost two weeks since employees of EORH were supposed to receive their most recent paychecks on March 7. Another scheduled payday is approaching Friday.

The hospital began voluntary layoffs and made cuts to “ancillary services” late last week, according to memos to employees from leadership at the hospital.

As of Tuesday evening, employees said they were able to see their owed pay listed on payroll app Paylocity, but the money still had not yet appeared in their bank accounts.

The number also still appears as a negative value in Paylocity, something Human Services Director Rick Oliver said was caused by payroll having to be voided and rerun. In a notice sent out to staff Monday, Oliver said the negative numbers would change “soon.”

Many employees have said they no longer have access to their EORH email accounts and have been sharing updates with each other on social media as they are received.

More than 60 EORH employees also filed reports with the Martins Ferry Police Department in recent days regarding unpaid insurance claims and payroll not being paid.

The police department has said it is in the early stages of investigating these reports and has been in contact with the FBI about the matter, which officers believe may be a white collar crime. Sgt. Vincent West noted, though, that it will be determined at a higher level of the justice system whether the failure to pay employees is a criminal or civil matter.