Good Samaritan Hospital closing: Former nurse recalls ‘small, friendly place’

A former nurse who has spent a good portion of her career at Good Samaritan Hospital was "shocked" to hear Wednesday's announcement that Premier Health planned to close the facility.

"I just cannot believe what I'm hearing," Rosa Lee Weinert said. The 89-year-old graduated from nursing school at the hospital in 1949 and worked there as a nurse until 1964.

The Englewood resident said she still serves on the hospital's alumni board.

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Weinert remembers her time on Philadelphia Avenue fondly, smiling as she remembered "the nuns who used to run the place" back with the hospital was a Catholic institution.

"It was a small, friendly place back then," Weinert said. "It was a beautiful community."

Weinert ran the heart-lung machine during open heart surgeries during her last four years at Good Samaritan. She marvels at all the instruments and machines nurses today use during surgeries.

Weinert wasn't a fan of how the hospital's exterior changed throughout the years -- from a small, warm building with a circular drive to the large facility she sees today.

She says it "boggles her mind" to think of the massive job of moving the services and patients from Good Samaritan to other Premier Health properties.

"I just cannot imagine Miami Valley [Hospital] assuming all of the patients and all of the care that is given at Good Samaritan. I can't imagine another building incorporating that," Weinert said.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, Premier Health hasn't offered a public plan for how it will accomplish that, just that the hospital will likely close sometime toward the end of 2018.