The closure of these hospitals has left thousands of residents \u2014 many of them immigrants, seniors or low-income \u2014 without an emergency room or hospital close to where they live, advocates said during a press conference Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state is responsible for overseeing public services such as hospitals, so we are calling on the governor to treat this like the public health emergency that it is,\u201d said Lilly Le, the community organizing director for the Vietnamese Association of Illinois.<\/p>\n
Many seniors in Uptown, which has a large population of Vietnamese immigrants, were longtime patients of Weiss, Le said. The loss of the hospital\u2019s services mean they have to travel longer distances if they\u2019re having a health emergency or need other care.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of folks were very confused about where they should go,\u201d Le said. \u201cThe transfer process was very unclear, there was lack of communication from the management and the influx is adding additional pressure to the healthcare system overall.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/081125-Weiss-Hospital-Colin-Boyle-2778-1024x682.jpg\")
Weiss Memorial Hospital, 4646 N. Marine Dr. in Uptown on Aug. 11, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle\/Block Club Chicago<\/p>\n
Phong Nguyen, an 81-year-old Uptown resident and former Weiss patient, said the state should be working with the community to find a path toward reopening the hospital as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of my neighbors are also low-income immigrants and elders who live near Weiss and can only walk or take public transit to the hospital,\u201d Nguyen said in Vietnamese, which was translated into English by Le. \u201cWe need Weiss. We need affordable healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for JB Pritzker said the state offered financial and other support to the hospitals but that it wasn\u2019t enough to sustain their operations under current ownership. <\/p>\n
\u201cDespite intensive financial and operational support from the State of Illinois throughout Resilience Health\u2019s tenure,\u00a0West\u00a0Suburban and Weiss Hospitals are ultimately private facilities whose leadership was both unable and unwilling to do everything in their power necessary to keep their facilities in operation \u2014 and they never presented the State with any formal request or viable plan to continue operations,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Weiss shuttered in August 2025 after federal health officials found it was not in compliance in three areas: nursing services, physical environment and emergency services.\u00a0Its removal from the federal health insurance programs came a month after Weiss\u2019 air conditioning failed, causing the hospital to refuse new patients and send existing patients to other medical facilities.<\/p>\n
West Suburban closed earlier this year due to what hospital executives said was a problematic new billing system that resulted in cashflow issues. But hospital workers told Block Club the facility suffered from chronic mismanagement<\/a> that led to inadequate care and dangerous conditions for some patients.<\/p>\n The possibility of these two hospital reopening under their current ownership remains unclear. <\/p>\n There has been an ongoing legal battle in Cook County Circuit Court between the two owners of Resilience Healthcare: Dr. Manoj Prasad, the CEO and majority owner of Resilience Healthcare, and Reddy Rathnaker Patlola, who owns 40 percent of Resilience and owns the properties where Weiss and West Suburban hospitals reside.<\/p>\n The two owners sued each other in April following the closure of West Suburban Hospital, with Patlola trying to take control of the hospitals away from Prasad, the Chicago Sun-Times<\/a> reported. They were both due in court for a hearing Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board last week granted Prasad another six months to resolve outstanding compliance issues and unpaid debts to the state before Weiss risks losing its license to operate, according to ABC7<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/031825-West-Suburban-Medical-Center-Colin-Boyle-6616-1024x682.jpg\")
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