A note posted on the door states that the locks for the spaces rented by Ashland Ventures LLC, 1917, have changed the owners recorded at the hospital and that they will only receive keys if they $ 461,302.24 rent paid and fees paid.
Staff members said they were not given any warning or opportunity to warn their patients or pick up their personal items from inside.
“I tried to make contact with the owners,” says Dr. Felicity Mack, who is listed in the hospital as a doctor. “They are not responding. The title business is not responding. We are really not getting any answers, but at the end of the day, my patients are my biggest concern, as I said.”
Mack on Monday tried to treat patients in need of wound care in the parking lot, but could not find any other equipment inside to treat others like Linda Fisher.
She said she sees serious persistent effects of COVID-19 at Mack several times a week.
“It’s detrimental to patients and to myself,” Fisher said from her wheelchair. “It will affect my functionality. I get regular visits all the time, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Mack said security will not allow them into the building, and police are also seen on the premises informing staff that they are not allowed.
Dr John Thomas, another doctor who left behind what was going on, said it was sending a message to their patients that their lives did not matter.
“It’s very obvious that someone is only thinking about money and not about community and lives,” Thomas said.
According to staff, there are three suppliers operating in Ashland St. 1917 in the Heights work out of the building. Patients and employees from the other groups gained access.
Meanwhile, property records show that the building was owned by 1917 Heights Hospital LLC.
The lawyers who appeared on the letter at the door of the hospital did not return ABC13’s request for comment Monday by phone.
Eyewitness News has learned that a civil lawsuit was filed in 1920 in Harris County against 1917 Heights Hospital LLC by Integranet Physician Resource Inc. filed and claims they do not owe $ 300,000 to them.
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee arrived at the hospital Monday afternoon and knocked on the door, but was also not allowed.
She calls the situation ‘outrageous’.
“If they pretend to be a hospital or a medical institution, there is federal involvement, and I do not believe there will be a look at the compensation they owe from the federal government that closed the doors to patients,” says the congresswoman.
Aside from not knowing how to proceed with patient care, Heights Hospital staff are not sure if they will be paid.
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