With the uncertain future of West Suburban Medical Center, a West Side-based committee has formed. They aim to open communications between the Austin and Oak Park communities and the owners of the hospital, and to hold those owners, Resilience Healthcare, accountable to its neighbors.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford helped organize the nascent group, which so far has met once and consists of four West Sub representatives and two community members. A second meeting, which was scheduled for Monday, July 28, was cancelled when one of the West Sub members was unable to attend. It is to be rescheduled.
Ford said he has been hearing from upset and concerned constituents about issues at West Sub.
“People are not satisfied with the hospital,” he said. Ford and Jaidalyn Rand, a public health administrator and member of the West Side Health Authority board, sought the group’s initial meeting.
In a recap of that meeting provided to Austin Weekly News, topics set for the next convening include a review of West Sub’s plans for 2025 and beyond, opportunities for community members to be involved as volunteers at the safety net hospital, other steps to increase community support and an update on West Sub’s efforts to obtain a $10 million loan from the state’s Healthcare and Family Services department. The committee was told that the loan was to fund ongoing operations of the hospital.
When asked the status of that loan, Ford said in a follow-up email that West Sub had applied for the loan, and it had already been rejected by the state. He said that, as a state legislator, he would need commitments from West Sub and trust in its leadership in order to push for approval of such funding.
Ford said his goal is to “grow the tent” of community members on the new committee. No public officials or residents of Oak Park or River Forest were part of the initial group.
Oak Park village spokesperson Dan Yopchick did not have any information to share on village officials’ involvement with the new committee as of Monday.
Resilience owns both West Sub and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Late last week, the federal Medicare oversight agency told Weiss that it would not receive further Medicare reimbursement after Aug. 9. Such funding is a lifeline for a safety net hospital. State records indicate that Weiss receives a majority of its revenue from Medicare.
Federal Medicare officials cited issues with Weiss’ physical plant, nursing staffing and emergency room operations as immediate reasons the hospital would lose its funding. Weiss has been in the news recently for the failure of its cooling system as Chicago entered a heat spell.
Ford, responding to previous reporting of the situation at Weiss, said it is possible “they may close.” He said he asked Dr. Manoj Prasad, CEO of Resilience, if he was contemplating selling West Sub. “He said emphatically, ‘Absolutely not.’”
Ford, who has had two tenures as a member of West Sub’s local advisory board, said he has some sympathy for the situation West Sub finds itself in.
“When you look at what the current federal government is doing to safety net hospitals, West Sub’s brighter days are not ahead.” Ford resigned from the advisory board after Pipeline Health sold West Sub and Weiss to Resilience. West Sub has had a long series of owners over the past two decades.
Since Resilience bought the hospitals in December 2022, staff have continually reported declining conditions at West Sub.
Resident doctors at West Sub began speaking up last May, saying that they weren’t seeing their program funding reflected in their resources. They also complained about deteriorating infrastructure, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education withdrew West Suburban Medical Center’s accreditation earlier this year.
In November, midwives and family medicine physicians at West Sub were told they could no longer deliver babies at the hospital.
Most recently, in the first week of July, West Suburban staff were told that the Family Birthplace floor, consisting of labor and delivery, postpartum and nursery units, would close indefinitely because of a shortage of nurses – a claim that provided timesheets refute. They say they still haven’t heard any update from West Suburban human relations or hospital leadership about if the floor will reopen.
