MIDDLETOWN — The fitness center at Riddle Hospital is set to close May 31 and several of its members are vocal about not wanting it to close.
“People are very disappointed,” Muriel “Buzzy” Diamond, 78, of Media, said. “They’re very sad about the whole thing.”
“This is ridiculous,” Rick Adriano, also 78 of Media, said. “We’ve got over 150 senior citizens that are now not going to have a place to exercise.”
Paul Sandler, an eight-year member of the center, added, “It would appear to me that if they really wanted to keep it open, there would be a way to do so. I can’t conceive of how a hospital concerned with good health and wellness would terminate a facility which deals almost exclusively with senior citizens.”
The facility is owned by Riddle Hospital and is on the second floor of the Rothman Institute building. The center is operated by Newark, Del.-based CardioKinetics.
Riddle Hospital President Shelly Buck sent a letter to the members stating, “Our partners at CardioKinetics, the company that manages and provides operational support for the fitness center at Riddle Hospital made the difficult decision to end their services at Riddle Hospital effective May 31, 2023.”
Riddle representatives met with the members in mid-March and Buck said they reviewed the possibility of keeping the center open but said the legal and compliance teams determined that was not possible.
As a result, she offered them a reduce rate membership for one person at $61 per month and $53 per month with a spouse for the Main Line Health Fitness & Wellness Center at 1020 Baltimore Pike in Glen Mills.
It has a fitness center, pool, classes and child care.
“We completely appreciate that this is a change for the folks,” Andrea Boyle Tippett, Mail Line Health associate vice president for communications, said. “We didn’t make the decision lightly.”
She said the third-party operator, CardioKinetics, decided to end their services at Riddle.
“They let us know earlier this year that they were going to close the center,” Boyle Tippett said. “They decided that they were going to opt out of this agreement.”
She said Main Line Health examined possibilities of how to keep fitness space there but determined it would take a significant investment to do so. In light of the $120 million Main Line Health anticipates to lose this year, Boyle Tippett said that would not be possible at this time.
Boyle Tippett added that Main Line Health does not plan to cut back on other services to the community.
In addition, Boyle Tippett said there was a compliance issue with Medicare and Medicaid that is not the case at the Concordville site because of the distinct space set aside for that fitness center.
She also noted that the Edge Fitness Center is across the street, and the Rocky Run YMCA and Planet Fitness in Broomall are nearby.
She said she did not know what would become of the Riddle fitness center space.
CardioKinetics has been running services at the center for approximately 12 years.
Different look at it
“I’m not trying to blame them but its not accurate to say CardioKinetics is closing the center,” Rich Shaw, president of CardioKinetics, said. “It’s (Main Line Health’s) center, (they) could find other alternatives or decide to close it.”
Shaw said his company does not own the equipment or the center and that members paid Main Line Health not CardioKinetics.
“They approached me in 2019 and said the dues aren’t really paying for the services,” Shaw said, adding that he was asked to cut his fees, which CardioKinetics did by 13 percent.
“I’ve been losing money for the last couple of years in the program,” he explained, adding they have one full-time employee there and another who works 27 hours a week. “I’ve been trying to hold on as long as I can.”
This year, he noticed the agreement would be coming to an end and said he asked Main Line Health if they wanted to look at alternatives, in hopes of them coming up with another solution.
“OK, I get it, you don’t have the money to pay me to make it worth my while,” he said about Main Line Health. “We can’t make it work together anymore. OK, I get that. I can’t make that work but maybe you can.”
Shaw said CardioKinetics gave Main Line Health 90 days notice in January, which would have ended last month. He said they asked them to extend it six weeks, so he did.
‘I’m trying to give them time to figure out a solution,” he said. “(I’m) hoping that something happens because it is serving a very significant service.”
Of the members, Shaw said, “They’re really cool people and there’s a need. It really is serving a tremendous purpose.”
In fact, some had even reached out to the office of U.S. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-5, of Swarthmore, where staff said they are working to gather more information.
‘People are stressed out’
The members themselves, most of whom are seniors, are pained about losing their fitness center.
“Obviously, the seniors who use the fitness center are very upset,” Diamond said. “Among our concerns is the fact that we feel Riddle Hospital is not fulfilling the mission statement of Main Line Health, which states, in part, ‘To meet the health care needs of the communities we serve and to improve the quality of life for all people.’ ”
She availed herself of the fitness classes the center offered and her 76-year-old husband, Richard, use the equipment three times a week.
Adriano has gone to the center four or five times a week and paid about $500 a year to do so.
“You could have grandfathered that and given us an exemption because we were in compliance for many years,” he said. “There’s no safety or hazard issue. Half the room is occupied by the physical therapy unit of the hospital. In other words if you need to have a knee replacement or a hip replacement, you go there. No one can fall into a pit or drown because there’s some kind of a hazard between the two rooms.”
He asked why there couldn’t be an exception made in this case.
“We’ve been in compliance for years and it’s never been a problem,” Adriano said. “Some bureaucrat decided to make it a problem. Isn’t it in the interest of the hospital and of the government to keep people healthy, especially seniors, so that they don’t incur medical bills or procedures? Well, this has helped us.”
He said he felt there could be a solution.
“This is manmade,” Adriano said. “This can be changed. The world’s not going to come to an end. There’s not going to be any great harm if we continue this. Already people are stressed out about it.”
Like a family
He likened the membership to a family, something, he said, that doesn’t occur at other facilities. He liked that staff took participants’ blood pressure and that the hospital was right there if there was a problem.
“We want them to waive that regulation, grandfather it,” Adriano said. “Some idiot had nothing better to do than make our lives difficult. That’s the story of government interference. You have to weigh the benefits versus the liabilities. It’s arbitrary, it’s capricious, it’s insensitive. … Regulations are manmade. This is not the Ten Commandments. It’s just a regulation. You can change a regulation.”
Main Line Health offered the CardioKinetics members the reduced monthly rate at their facility in Concordville.
“It’s not going to do anything for me, and it’s too far away,” Adriano said, adding that he felt the Edge Fitness catered to a younger crowd.
Diamond said that unlike Riddle Hospital and the YMCA, the site in Concordville doesn’t accept the Silver Sneakers Medicare.
“You’re talking to a bunch of seniors who don’t want to drive anyway,” Diamond added.
She said the YMCA is not the same.
“I was looking for classes and I can’t find the class that I want in the time that I need,” Diamond said. “It will be inconvenient but I can’t not do something.”
She said she appreciated the small size of the fitness classes at Riddle because it felt like a community where people made others feel comfortable and the instructors could correct people.
“That is something I will miss,” she said.
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