Some doctors from West Suburban work at hospitals where patients are getting care now, places that also treat a lot of people who are low income or don\u2019t have health insurance. They worry which hospital could shutter next, that this could be the beginning of a wave of potential closures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park abruptly closed in late March. Doctors worry more struggling hospitals could face the same fate as big cuts to Medicaid loom.<\/p>\n Big cuts to Medicaid<\/a> public health insurance for people who are poor or have disabilities are coming next year. In Illinois, around one in four people have Medicaid. More than 400,000 people could lose coverage<\/a>, meaning less money for hospitals that treat them.<\/p>\n Many hospitals are in a precarious position. More than a dozen have racked up over $700 million in debt to the state \u2014 in many cases to help keep their doors open, according to records WBEZ and the Sun-Times obtained.<\/p>\n The state has only received or clawed back about $100 million. Several hospitals have not kept up with how much they agreed to pay back, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services says. HFS approved the funds and allowed debt to swell. HFS Director Elizabeth Whitehorn declined an interview.<\/p>\n Most of the hospitals, known as safety nets, typically treat people no matter if they can pay. So they struggle to make ends meet.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, several of these hospitals would currently not even qualify for a new state loan program<\/a> designed to help them because they\u2019re \u201cdelinquent\u201d in repaying their debt.<\/p>\n None of this will stop people from showing up with heart attacks or strokes, a serious injury or a shooting.<\/p>\n \u201cWest Suburban is the first of many dominoes to fall,\u201d predicts Dr. Vishnu Chundi, an infectious disease specialist who spent more than 15 years at West Suburban.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s like a chess game\u2019 <\/p>\n Located just across the street from Austin, West Suburban was a destination for the majority Black neighborhood, which has one of the lowest life expectancies<\/a> in Chicago.<\/p>\n Residents here can expect to live on average to 73, compared to 88 in the Loop, where most people are white \u2014 a 15-year gap. It\u2019s more common<\/a> for people in Austin to die of cancer, heart disease or diabetes than in other parts of Chicago \u2014 conditions that put them at higher risk for being hospitalized.<\/p>\n Pastor Ira Acree, who leads Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin, is part of a group of pastors and doctors who are calling out what they say is a lack of urgency and accountability from Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and state and federal lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot accept a standard of care for the West Side that would not be tolerated in wealthier neighborhoods,\u201d Acree implored about 50 community leaders during a recent meeting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pastor Ira Acree, who leads Greater St. John Bible Church in Austin, during a rally in late May with dozens of religious leaders, health care workers and community members outside West Suburban Medical Center to demand its reopening.<\/p>\n Doctors who spent decades at West Suburban, and still work in the community, say the quality of care started to decline before the hospital\u2019s sudden closure in March.<\/p>\n Longtime orthopedic surgeon Dr. Victor Romano stopped taking his elective cases to West Suburban around the time Manoj Prasad took over<\/a> in 2022. Romano worried if something happened to his patients in the middle of the night, there wouldn\u2019t be doctors in the intensive care unit to take care of them. Federal inspectors were concerned<\/a> about this, too, when they found patients at the hospital could be at risk of serious harm or death.<\/p>\n A company repossessed a robot he used for knee replacements, Romano says. He opted to perform surgeries at other hospitals that kept their operating rooms cool. At West Suburban, temperatures in the ORs climbed into the 80s, he says.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want to be sweating into the wound,\u201d Romano says, adding that humidity could breed infection.<\/p>\n On March 25, Prasad revealed a massive billing issue<\/a>. West Suburban took in just 10 to 15% of its usual income in the last year. He struggled to pay staff, and abruptly suspended services. He called it temporary. Now the hospital\u2019s fate is being battled in court<\/a>. Prasad declined an interview.<\/p>\n About 70 patients still in the hospital when it closed were discharged or transferred to others. Some of Chundi\u2019s patients in intensive care ended up at a hospital nearly 10 miles away, about an hour-long drive in traffic.<\/p>\n Then a building filled with doctor\u2019s offices on West Suburban\u2019s campus closed for a few weeks when the elevators broke \u2014 again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n John Romando was a West Suburban patient for about 30 years before it closed. When the medical office building on campus closed, too, he had to suddenly travel farther from home for hours-long dialysis treatments three days a week.<\/p>\n Another long-time patient, John Romando suddenly had to get dialysis somewhere else. He traveled nearly 30 minutes from home, roughly double his commute to West Suburban, and at a time that he says disrupts his work day running a towing company.<\/p>\n Romando sits in a chair for about three to four hours, three days a week, as a machine filters and cleans his blood, something his failing kidneys can no longer do. The experience can be scary, he says. Afterward, he feels weak. He was upset his girlfriend wasn\u2019t allowed to sit with him at the new location to put him at ease.<\/p>\n He says he was a patient at West Suburban for about 30 years. It\u2019s where his two sons were born, and where he was rushed and treated for two heart attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the only hospital I ever went to,\u201d says Romando, 59. \u201cI knew everybody, all the nurses, the doctors. You walk in the door. \u2018How you doing, Mr. Romando?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n PCC Community Wellness Center, which has about a dozen clinics in the Chicago area, was closely intertwined with West Suburban. They\u2019ve squeezed hundreds of people they treated each week at the medical office building into their other clinics, says Dr. Paul Luning, PCC\u2019s chief medical officer.<\/p>\n Before West Suburban\u2019s closure, Meghan Nolan knew just what to do for her patients. She\u2019s director of reproductive services at PCC. For example, a pregnant woman with a concerning condition who needs an ultrasound the same day. Nolan would have called up a radiology tech at West Suburban she knew, who would get patients in, then call back with results. A patient wouldn\u2019t get lost.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if a patient that lives in Austin has that, where do they go?\u201d she asks.<\/p>\n She taps one of her strengths: a running list of resources because she has to consider a lot more. How would patients get to another hospital? Is it accessible by public transit? Many patients don\u2019t have a car, but if they do, is parking free? Do they take a patient\u2019s insurance, if they have any?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like a chess game,\u201d Nolan says. \u201cI\u2019ve worked in Austin for almost 11 years. Most of my patients could walk to West Sub.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meghan Nolan, director of reproductive services at PCC Community Wellness Center, says before West Suburban closed, most of her patients in Chicago\u2019s nearby Austin community could walk to the hospital.<\/p>\n Struggling hospitals try to absorb West Suburban\u2019s load<\/p>\n For years, doctors at West Suburban stabilized the steady flow of people<\/a> who were shot and made their way to the emergency department. Austin has one of the highest gun-related homicide rates in Chicago<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2023, about 25,000 people were treated in the emergency department, the hospital\u2019s most recent data<\/a> shows. Now those patients have to go somewhere else.<\/p>\n Some people have found their way to Loretto Hospital in Austin, about two miles south of West Suburban, a roughly 10-minute drive.<\/p>\n Loretto CEO Tesa Anewishki confirms the small hospital is a lot busier. Ambulance runs have more than doubled, pushing up wait times, she says. There are more critically ill patients, and outpatient services are much busier, too.<\/p>\n Patients coming from West Suburban often have more complex illnesses and are sicker, says Tariq Mubarak, a primary care physician who worked at West Suburban for about a decade before it closed. He\u2019s also chief medical officer of a private practice whose doctors work at safety net hospitals on the West Side.<\/p>\n \u201cLoretto is definitely feeling the stress and the pressure from the closure of West Suburban,\u201d Mubarak says.<\/p>\n But Anewishki says Loretto has capacity and welcomes the business.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Loretto Hospital is a lot busier since nearby West Suburban closed in March, but the CEO says the hospital in Chicago\u2019s Austin community has capacity.<\/p>\n Anthony Vazquez\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n \u201cOur team has actually been excited,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She wants to change the perception of Loretto, which is still dealing with a COVID-19 vaccine scandal<\/a> under a previous CEO, from a hospital known for treating mental health issues, into one that provides a bevy of services.<\/p>\n Anewishki acknowledges how much money Loretto owes the state. She says she\u2019s paid back about $1.5 million so far of about $31 million in taxes, penalties and advances owed as of March. Loretto has been barred from a separate bucket of state money for safety net hospitals for not getting audits in on time, records show. Anewishki says Loretto had an IT breach and should be caught up with audits in the next few months.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re operating very stretched right now,\u201d she says, expecting to end the most recent fiscal year with a $10 million operating loss.<\/p>\n At the same time, Anewishki says she\u2019s in talks with the state on how they can support Loretto given the unexpected sudden surge in patients. The majority of Loretto\u2019s patients have Medicaid health insurance. The hospital gets on average about 32 cents for every $1 spent to treat them, Anewishki estimates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have the luxury to pull down from endowments and other funding pools when something breaks,\u201d Anewishki says. \u201cWe have to pull from operations.\u201d<\/p>\n An emergency chiller is cooling the century-old hospital, while the names of millionaire donors are etched on gleaming new buildings of academic medical centers across town.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the emergency department at another hospital about two miles west of West Suburban, a 10-minute drive, where former patients might head is crowded, too.<\/p>\n Records show the ER at Rush Oak Park Hospital was on \u201cpeak census,\u201d or nearly closed to ambulances, for about 26 days from mid-April \u2014 a few weeks after West Suburban\u2019s sudden closure \u2014 roughly through June. Several patients lingered in the ER on and off, waiting for a bed. That\u2019s compared to just two days of peak census spanning the same time frame before West Suburban\u2019s closure.<\/p>\n Some of the recent ER crowding has to do with the closure, but Rush Oak Park CEO Dr. Dino Rumoro says the ER has been getting busier for years.<\/p>\n Also, the hospital only staffs for about half of the beds they have, while some patients are sicker and stay in the hospital longer, which leads to back ups in the ER for people waiting for a bed, Rumoro says. He\u2019s asked the state if he can open a dormant unit to treat more patients.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At Community First Medical Center in Portage Park, about four miles north of West Suburban, a roughly 20-minute ride, the ER is slammed while the hospital is understaffed, says nurse Margaret Polakow. She says she worked several 80-hour weeks. Some critically ill patients are stuck in the ER, some on breathing machines, waiting for beds in the intensive care unit because there aren\u2019t enough nurses upstairs, she says.<\/p>\n Some patients who live near West Suburban told Polakow they put off going to another hospital because they didn\u2019t want to travel farther from home, so they arrived at Community First sicker, in kidney and respiratory failure, she says.<\/p>\n Some are shocked at the conditions they see in the ER, Polakow says. Old, dirty rooms with broken beds, some rigged with medical tape to keep the rails up. Water doesn\u2019t run in some sinks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe stuff that we just accept and live with is really ridiculous,\u201d Polakow says. \u201c\u201cI equate it to M*A*S*H*,\u201d the TV Show where a surgical team works in a war zone.<\/p>\n Dr. Neil Rosenberg, a lung specialist who has worked at the hospital for more than 40 years, says it isn\u2019t far behind West Suburban. He\u2019s watched specialists leave because they don\u2019t get resources and support, which means fewer services for the community.<\/p>\n He worries for the months ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine what it\u2019s going to be like in the winter,\u201d when flu season hits and hospitals can fill up with sick patients, Rosenberg says.<\/p>\n Community First owed about $68 million in taxes and penalties to the state as of March, and has received at least $9 million in advances since 2019, state records show.<\/p>\n Hospital administrators did not respond to requests to comment.<\/p>\n In a statement about the West Suburban closure, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Public Health, which regulates hospitals, says they have \u201cfocused our efforts on ensuring continuity of care for impacted patients and maintaining access to health care services for community residents,\u201d but declined an interview to explain how.<\/p>\n Mubarak questions if the state is doing enough. He wonders, who is actually going to take care of all of these patients?<\/p>\n \u201cYou try your best. You do your best,\u201d he says. But, \u201cit\u2019s just common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Searching for solutions and accountability <\/p>\n Pritzker declined an interview. In a statement, a spokesperson for the governor says despite state support, West Suburban is ultimately a private business that \u201cwas both unable and unwilling to do everything in its power necessary to keep the facility in operation.\u201d<\/p>\n Other elected officials say they\u2019re hosting community meetings and pushing the state to give more money to hospitals absorbing patients.<\/p>\n \u201cMy style is not generally to scream and pound my fists and look for the nearest television camera,\u201d says State Sen. Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Vishnu Chundi, an infectious disease specialist, is part of a group of doctors and pastors on the West Side who are calling out what they say is a lack of urgency and accountability from Gov. JB Pritzker and lawmakers about West Suburban\u2019s closing.<\/p>\n Doctors and pastors sounding the alarm question how closely the state vetted Prasad to buy a hospital, and then make sure it was being run appropriately.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy aren\u2019t these various governing bodies concerned about what happened to the money?,\u201d asks Dr. George Naratadam, a nephrologist who worked at West Suburban for about 16 years.<\/p>\n Prasad closed West Suburban and Weiss Memorial in Uptown<\/a> without reimbursing the state more than $100 million in advances, taxes and penalties. The state has recouped at least $13 million so far.<\/p>\n \u201cPenalizing a hospital that already can\u2019t financially meet the needs that they have to provide care in the community isn\u2019t really going to go very far,\u201d says State Rep. Anna Moeller, an Elgin Democrat who leads a bipartisan group of lawmakers overseeing Medicaid issues.<\/p>\n Still, more oversight is coming. She points to the law Pritzker signed that phases out advances for hospitals and instead creates the new loan program next year, capped at $85 million a year. That\u2019s a drop in the bucket compared to what hospitals have received.<\/p>\n There will be stiffer guardrails. For one, hospitals are ineligible if they are delinquent in reimbursing the state. The state can immediately claw back money owed. Any hospital in debt to the state must file plans that spell out what happens if they close.<\/p>\n The idea is to protect taxpayer dollars while preventing more closures, Moeller says, though clawing back money could put hospitals at risk.<\/p>\n In the meantime, doctors and pastors say the state needs to create a plan to fill the void West Suburban\u2019s closure created \u2014 and for other communities where this could happen next.<\/p>\n Even in its final months as West Suburban deteriorated, Naratadam says, patients still showed up.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a hospital that took patients who other places wouldn\u2019t see,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Kristen Schorsch is a senior reporter for WBEZ covering public health.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n [month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone] read<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n [month] [day], [year], [hour]:[minute][ampm] [timezone] read<\/p>\n![\"West](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/183dc3f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F59%2F55%2F829751bf44888bd52c2d1a09f2c2%2Fwestsuburbanhospital-260527-11.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pastor](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/db8972e\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/4650x3100+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F39%2F7e%2Fe2e40daa4fd6918922aba7328573%2Fwestsuburbanospital-260527-6.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/cf4bec6\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F2f%2F6a%2F54aab9d2481fb6b8e7a2d824941d%2Fwestsubpeople-2607070043.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Meghan](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/d5d0479\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F0e%2Fc3%2Fa99273f2402ba39eb63cc234aeeb%2F20241217-meghan-nolan-mm0054.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8477109\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6000x4000+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F7f%2Fb0%2F792906f84345aca0271716843ba2%2Fcv-loretto-04.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dr.](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1ed52d9\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6106x4071+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fd3%2F01%2Fa79d489c4eea918c4e94f964fb83%2Fwestsuburbanospital-260527-7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Daevon](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/462735f\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2F65%2F97%2F002892ef4771bd6980675b222ef1%2Fdeathgap-familyphoto-1114250155.jpg\")
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\n \u00a0\n <\/p>\n![\"Jackie](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/ea9a0d2\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/8192x5464+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fce%2Ff6%2Fd3f2957b4186b7e83614b28cf2c5%2Fpeacerunners-1216250136-1.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Members](\"https:\/\/cst.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/8849a07\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/6122x4083+0+0\/resize\/840x560!\/quality\/90\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fchorus-production-cst-web.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Fbrightspot%2Fd5%2F67%2F0f4f138d4bcc862c2b69c0b81340%2Fsankofaopening-260424-07.jpg\")
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