Mary McCullough came Thursday to visit her 18-year-old niece who had been hospitalized for a week at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and was surprised as paramedics were preparing to transport her from the building.
She said the family wasn’t made aware that the hospital was closing until Thursday morning, a day after the hospital already closed down operations.
West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park on Wednesday announced it was temporarily shutting down its patient care amid a yearlong financial crisis, but that word didn’t get out to everyone, including McCullough’s family.
McCullough said her niece’s mother saw paramedics were preparing to transport her niece, who suffers from several medical issues. They had not known why she was being transported until the paramedics informed the family that the hospital was closing. After conferring with doctors, she said her niece was eventually transferred to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
“I understand if the hospital was closing, but for you to not tell the patients that they’re going to be transferred out, and she did not even know that, that’s just not right,” McCullough said. “And that’s bad because then now everybody’s scrambling to find somewhere to put the patients.”
A hospital employee who asked to remain anonymous said workers were told via an email from Manoj Prasad, the owner of West Suburban Medical Center, that the hospital would be closing. Other than that, Prasad has not communicated with staff at the hospital, the employee said.
Like McCullough’s doctor, many West Suburban health care providers were busy taking care of appointment disruptions and lining up destination hospitals for their patients before they could consider their own employment status.
On Thursday afternoon, some patients were still finding out about the closure.
Diana Cortes, who was leaving a clinic inside of West Suburban Thursday, said she just started going to the hospital in February after moving to Chicago last summer, and felt unsure how to feel after finding out about the hospital closing.
“I was planning on coming back in the next few months, so I’ll either have to hunt my doctor down or see if I missed an email or something,” Cortes said.
According to a statement from Oak Park officials, approximately 70 patients were working with hospital officials Wednesday to assess whether they will be discharged or transferred to other healthcare facilities. The hospital was expected to be emptied by 5 p.m. Friday.
In a statement issued Thursday, Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said he was “surprised and disappointed” by the news of the hospital’s patient care suspension and is working with the governor’s office and state agency leaders to find a new facility for patients.
“This is a sad day,” Harmon’s statement said. “While West Suburban’s problems have been well documented, I was surprised by the sudden announcement. We’d been working to try to prevent this very situation.”
The hospital’s closure comes after a yearlong financial crisis. Walk-in patients were no longer accepted after 4 p.m. Wednesday and Oak Park Fire Department officials were informed the hospital’s emergency room was no longer accepting ambulances.
West Suburban Medical Center was one of two hospitals acquired by Resilience Healthcare in 2022, along with Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, which closed last year amid financial duress. Resilience bought the two hospitals from California-based Pipeline Health for $92 million.
The Tribune reported in October that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services was in the process of recouping funds from Weiss, and was “reviewing next steps” when it comes to West Suburban.
As news of the West Suburban Medical Center’s closure spread Wednesday afternoon, Oak Park village President Vicki Scaman called the loss of hospital access “frightening.”
“We recognize that for many in our community, ‘West Sub’ wasn’t just the closest option, it was their only option,” Scaman said in a statement. “The village of Oak Park stands with all of those impacted and we will continue to do everything within our power to support them through this uncertainty.”
chardy@chicagotribune.com
