Next, Sudden Closure of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park The hospital’s CEO spoke publicly for the first time last week on Wednesday, saying the closure was temporary and that there were plans to reopen this summer, a plan that has been met with much skepticism.
Doctors working in West Suburban have doubts about the CEO’s ability to follow through on his plan.
West Suburban closed Thursday, blaming a computerized billing system for the sudden closure, but said it would reopen once it had enough revenue to fund operations.
The hospital’s financial problems were even worse than many realized, with millions of dollars in debt and serious billing problems that meant the hospital was not receiving treatment fees for some patients.
On Wednesday, the owners said they plan to fix the problem and reopen the hospital by early summer, but Illinois lawmakers said they want proof that the owners can pull it off.
“The closure of this hospital is a reversal of access to health care in this region,” said Rep. La’Shawn Ford (D-Chicago).
State leaders said West Suburban faces serious financial challenges, including debt, unpaid taxes and problems with its electronic billing system.
The hospital’s owner said billing omissions meant the hospital was only collecting a portion of the amount it was owed, which led to its sudden closure.
He said he is currently working to identify the problem and recover the funds, which he believes will help reopen the hospital by the summer.
“I always like to have at least four or five people’s salaries saved somewhere, because we don’t want to work and give our employees an unpaid payday,” said Dr. Manoj Prasad, CEO of Resilience Healthcare, which owns the hospital.
Prasad has said he hopes to reopen hospitals by July, but state leaders will closely monitor whether hospitals are financially stable before reopening.
Prasad said he inherited a big problem when he bought West Suburban in 2022.
“There were stretchers and stretchers that were duct-taped,” he said. “All my emergency care bills were gone. I didn’t know why.”
He blamed the billing system for missing a year’s worth of claims, or about 120,000 claims. He claimed he deserved credit for running a hospital that no one else wanted.
“We came in at a time when no one was messing with this place. We’ve been running this place for three and a half years. Tell me who else did it,” he said.
Ford said he has heard doctors’ enthusiasm, but not a detailed plan.
“You’re the big guy. Don’t worry about the credit. We’re not worried about the credit. What we want to do is make sure we have the ability to reopen. You open it up, so we’ll get the credit. But our concern at this point is patient care and patient safety,” Ford said.
West Suburban is at least $181 million in debt, according to Ford, but Prasad said he is confident the hospital will be able to reopen in early July.
“I have full confidence that I will be back to serve in some capacity,” he said.
Dr. Chidinma Osineme, the hospital’s medical director, is not so sure.
“I’m not qualified to say that at this point,” she said.
Since 2019, she has watched West Suburban slowly crumble.
“I’m worried about my patients in Austin. Yes, I am,” she said, referring to Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, which is across the street from West Suburban.
West Suburban Hospital is a safety net hospital that accepts patients regardless of their ability to pay. The facility’s closure leaves one less option for affordable health care for many patients on Chicago’s West Side and western suburbs.
The hospital’s emergency room once served 75 to 80 patients per day.
“Shootings? Yes. Addiction? Yes. Cancer treatment? Yes. Reese is the life-saving care they need and they come here, but our doors are closed,” Osineme said.
When those doors will reopen depends on who you ask.
“I think he has the drive to do it, but I don’t think there’s a clear guarantee that he’ll have a hospital open by July,” Ford said.
Many patients ask about access to their medical records. West Suburban said it has a six-person team working on the issue and that it can take seven to 10 business days to ship records, but that it responds immediately to urgent requests.
meanwhile, Another hospital CEO offers to help.
Atif Bawahab, president and CEO of Chicago’s Insight Hospital and Medical Center (formerly Mercy Hospital), said he is in negotiations with West Suburban’s owner and landlord.
Bawahab said Insight was ready to intervene immediately to stabilize the situation in the short term and to work to rebuild the hospital in the long term.
#West #Suburban #Medical #Center #owner #plans #reopen #hospital #summer #questions #remain