<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/4/1586817235950.jpeg" alt=" Pinnacle Regional Hospital, formerly known as Blue Valley Hospital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. Dan Margolies / KCUR 89.3" />
 <figcaption> Pinnacle Regional Hospital, formerly known as Blue Valley Hospital, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February. Dan Margolies / KCUR 89.3</figcaption>
 </figure>By DAN MARGOLIES <a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/private-hospital-overland-park-and-its-clinics-close-citing-disruption-caused-covid-19#stream/0">Kansas News Service</a>Pinnacle
 Regional Hospital in Overland Park, Kansas, and its satellite clinics 
have closed their doors and terminated almost all of their employees.The
 privately owned hospital, which was formerly known as Blue Valley 
Hospital and specialized in spinal fusion surgery and procedures to help
 obese people lose weight, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
 February.The hospital, located at 127th Street and Metcalf 
Avenue, had remained open after it filed for Chapter 11. But in a notice
 to employees on Friday, the Chapter 11 trustee said that “unforeseen 
and unexpected business circumstances, including the disruption to a 
wide range of surgeries and business operations created by the COVID-19 
pandemic,” had led to the decision to shut it down.Also 
shuttered were the Blue Valley Surgical Associates clinics in Overland 
Park; Kansas City, Missouri; Blue Springs, Missouri; Springfield, 
Missouri; Columbia, Missouri; and St. Louis, Missouri.A handful 
of administrative employees will continue working, but the 100-plus 
doctors, nurses, therapists and other health workers at the hospital and
 clinics are expected to be laid off over the next two weeks.Doug
 Palzer, the owner of Pinnacle Health Care System (the parent company of
 the hospital and clinics, could not be reached for comment. Pinnacle’s
 CEO, Joseph Conigliaro, did not return a call seeking comment.In January, Pinnacle Health Care System&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/pinnacle-regional-hospital-boonville-missouri-shuts-down-operations#stream/0">shut down its other hospital in Boonville, Missouri,</a>&nbsp;also called Pinnacle Regional Hospital. That occurred after state health regulators <a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/boonville-missouri-hospital-ordered-stop-performing-surgery#stream/0">ordered the Boonville facility to overhaul its sterile processing procedures</a>. Pinnacle Health Care System said the expense of doing so was prohibitive.Palzer,
 a businessman who lives part of the year in Las Vegas, founded Blue 
Valley Hospital about 10 years ago. He changed its name to Pinnacle 
after he bought Cooper County Memorial Hospital in Boonville in 2018 and
 renamed it Pinnacle Regional Hospital. Both hospitals specialized in 
bariatric surgery – a procedure to help extremely obese people lose 
weight – and spinal surgery. The hospitals claimed to perform more than a
 third of all bariatric surgeries for Missouri Medicaid patients.Palzer bought the Boonville hospital after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in 2018 <a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/overland-park-weight-loss-hospital-struggles-regain-its-medicare-certification#stream/0">stripped the Overland Park hospital of its Medicare certification</a>,
 depriving it of a major source of revenue. The Centers for Medicare and
 Medicaid Services found that the Overland Park hospital did not 
“primarily engage” in providing inpatient services, which is a 
requirement for Medicare coverage. Hospitals must average at least two 
inpatients a day and an average length of stay of at least two nights to
 be eligible for Medicare reimbursement.<a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/two-patients-died-after-surgery-overland-park-hospital-their-families-want-answers#stream/0">A KCUR investigation</a>
 earlier this year found that two patients who underwent surgery at the 
Overland Park facility died in 2017 and 2018 after receiving high doses 
of fentanyl and oxycodone, respectively. Health inspectors later 
concluded that “fentanyl intoxication” and “oxycodone intoxication” 
likely contributed to the two men’s deaths, according to federal records
 obtained by KCUR. &nbsp;The deaths came at a time when the hospital 
was in peril of losing its Medicare certification because it didn’t have
 a sufficient number of inpatients. A hospital staffer told inspectors 
in 2017 that it was performing “a lot of extra surgeries to get the 
numbers we needed,” according to inspection reports.The families
 of both men have sued Pinnacle for negligence, but the bankruptcy and 
now the closure of the hospital may leave them without any assets to 
pursue if they prevail.&nbsp;Dan Margolies is a senior reporter and editor at KCUR. You can reach him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DanMargolies">@DanMargolies</a>.

Private Kan. hospital closes, citing COVID-19 disruption