Last week I was in Toledo, Ohio, a city in middle America that has suffered due to the decline of American manufacturing. It has a beautiful library and baseball stadium and has aspirations of renewal. Walking around town, I noticed several large buildings with the branding of a company called ProMedica. I had never heard of the company before and was curious about what it did and how it gained such a large local footprint. In talking to several people around town, I quickly got the impression that the company had recently run into financial difficulties due to the COVID Pandemic.
According to wtol.com, as of May 23rd of this year, ProMedica had sold off its hospice and home healthcare business for $710 million to pay down its existing debts. They aim to return to their core business of running hospitals in the mid-west. As a result of this downsizing, according to Wtol, around 200 nursing employees have been laid off. On top of all the laid-offs and selling off unprofitable businesses, ProMedica has also lessened investment in Toledo. Recently, they announced that they would invest $10 million into redeveloping the riverwalk; however, in March of this year, ProMedica announced that they pulled out of that partnership due to financial issues. This highlights the perils of allowing one company to dominate a city; if that company fails, the whole town suffers.
Crispin Corruption Report 