{"id":551215,"date":"2026-03-28T22:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551215\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T22:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T22:20:18","slug":"talks-underway-to-reopen-west-suburban-hospital-one-of-its-owners-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/551215\/","title":{"rendered":"Talks Underway To Reopen West Suburban Hospital, One Of Its Owners Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tOverview:<\/p>\n

The safety-net medical center, which mostly serves low-income West Side patients, began shutting down this week, but its minority owner hopes another hospital system can save it.<\/p>\n

As West Suburban Medical Center began closing on Friday, one of its owners said he is in talks with a nonprofit health care firm to reopen and stabilize the safety-net hospital.<\/p>\n

Reddy Rathnaker Patlola owns West Suburban\u2019s property in Oak Park as well as 40 percent of the company that runs the hospital, Resilience Healthcare. In a written statement, Reddy said he is \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by West Suburban\u2019s abrupt closure and the impact on its patients, who are mostly low-income residents from Chicago\u2019s West Side.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reddy Rathnaker Patlola Credit: X<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe loss of services, particularly with such immediacy, will have a profound and lasting impact on access to care and community health outcomes,\u201d Patlola\u2019s statement said. \u201cI have grown increasingly concerned about the trajectory of hospital operations, which has resulted in a reduction in services and now the imminent closure of this critical community asset.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patlola said he is talking with leaders of the company that runs Insight Hospital and Medical Center<\/a>, a facility on the city\u2019s near South Side formerly known as Mercy Hospital, about possibly helping to reboot West Suburban.<\/p>\n

According to Patlola, those discussions are taking place without his business partner Dr. Manoj Prasad, the majority owner of West Suburban\u2019s parent company, Resilience Healthcare. <\/p>\n

Prasad didn\u2019t directly answer Block Club\u2019s questions about Patlola\u2019s comments, instead reiterating a previous statement that his team is \u201cworking around-the-clock\u201d to restore services at West Suburban. <\/p>\n

Insight has already taken a large number of patients transferred from West Suburban, a source with knowledge of the situation told Block Club.<\/p>\n

The company Insight Chicago took over Mercy Hospital in 2021<\/a>, saving and renaming the historic South Side facility after it fell hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsight is able to support preserving healthcare services at West Suburban Hospital similar to the role we played in maintaining Mercy Hospital,\u201d Atif Bawahab, CEO of Insight, said in a statement. \u201cOur mission is to step into complex situations and maintain continuity of care for the sake of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, which regulates and provides funding to hospitals in the state, didn\u2019t answer questions about the statements from Patlola and Insight.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur top priority remains ensuring continuity of care for community residents and patients who have been impacted by the suspension of service,\u201d the IDPH statement said. \u201cWe are actively working with various healthcare providers, community partners, and sister state agencies on a roadmap that will provide residents with a stable and accessible healthcare option during this transitional period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Manoj Prasad (center), CEO and president of Resilience Healthcare, calls for more funding for safety-net hospitals at West Suburban Medical Center on June 30, 2025. Credit: Manny Ramos<\/p>\n

Prasad, the hospital\u2019s president and CEO, has faced a bevy of complaints since 2022, when Resilience acquired West Suburban and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown for $92 million. In August, Weiss closed soon after federal officials cut off that hospital\u2019s Medicare and Medicaid funding over noncompliance with program rules. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, West Suburban made a series of significant cuts in services. It ended programs offering midwives and family medicine as well as doctor training, and last summer it shut down its labor and delivery, postpartum and nursery units.<\/p>\n

Unable to make payroll, Prasad abruptly announced earlier this week that the hospital would be temporarily closing its doors by Friday. Prasad blamed billing problems that resulted from a faulty new electronic medical records system.<\/p>\n

But sources told Block Club the transition to the new system was botched because the hospital failed to make payments on its previous records and billing system<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In an effort to distance himself from Prasad, Patlola\u2019s statement Friday said that, as a minority owner of West Suburban, he has \u201cnot been involved in the clinical operations or the day-to-day management of the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patlola has received multiple reports from concerned employees about the deteriorating financial and physical condition of the hospital, Joseph Clary, a spokesperson for Patlola, told Block Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is skeptical that the hospital\u2019s financial difficulties can be attributed solely\u201d to the medical records system, Clary said. \u201cBilling disruptions are real and can be damaging, but they are typically recoverable. The situation at West Suburban appears to reflect deep and broader challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prasad holds 60 percent of the ownership in Resilience Healthcare and Patlola the other 40 percent, according to state records. Patlola also owns all of the property the hospital sits on.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The partnership with Prasad was Patlola\u2019s first venture into health care. He is the owner of New Jersey-based Ramoco Fuels, which is a gas station and fuel distribution company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, across the street from Chicago\u2019s Austin neighborhood, on March 18, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n

West Suburban\u2019s doors were still open Friday morning, but most if not all patients had already been transferred to other hospitals in the city, hospital employees told Block Club. Some employees gathered in the lobby and hugged, laughed and reminisced about their years working there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was a lot of transparency with the ownership and that was evident by how many people were shocked that the hospital was closing,\u201d a longtime West Suburban employee told Block Club, asking their name not be shared. \u201cDoctors, nurses, ER Techs, no one saw this coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The employee welcomed the possibility that Insight could help reopen West Suburban.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see that happen,\u201d the employee said. \u201cI think the community needs a hospital, there is no two ways about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listen to the Block Club Chicago podcast:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview: The safety-net medical center, which mostly serves low-income West Side patients, began shutting down this week, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-551215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}