After West Suburban Medical Center abruptly closed its doors on March 27, local activists started making plans to reopen the hospital.
Though Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad, who owns West Suburban, said he aims to reopen the hospital by July, that’s contingent on receiving hundreds of millions of dollars-worth of charges from 120,000 claims that the hospital’s Electronic Medical Record system failed to bill for over the last year. And last month, Rathnaker Reddy Patlola — the landlord of West Suburban through Ramco Holdings and a minority owner of Resilience Healthcare — filed a lawsuit against Resilience Healthcare for breach of contract, over $24 million in unpaid rent, and alleged misappropriation of a $10 million state loan. Also in April, Prasad filed a motion disputing these claims.
As ownership engages in a legal battle, a group of hospital staff, local activists and residents are making their own plan to reopen the hospital this summer after meeting April 6 to establish working groups. And legislators are trying to approve legislation to prevent sudden closures at other hospitals.
“I work a little or a lot on this almost every day now,” Illinois Senate President Don Harmon told Austin Weekly News and Wednesday Journal in April.
Though West Suburban in mid-April resumed some primary care services, most of the hospital’s once-renowned services remain unavailable.
“It is important to clarify that outpatient (ambulatory) services are not equivalent to hospital-based care. They do not replace the critical services our community relies on, including emergency care, inpatient services, ICU-level care, elective surgeries, and essential diagnostic testing,” said Dr. Chidinma Osineme, president of West Suburban’s medical staff, in an email to the Weekly and the Journal the same day the hospital announced some resumed services April 15. “Limited outpatient activity, if occurring, does not address the broader access and safety concerns created by the hospital closure. We remain focused on advocating for the full restoration of hospital operations under new leadership from the ground up to ensure patients have access to comprehensive, timely care.”
With most of West Suburban remaining closed, some say it will be difficult to relaunch necessary services.
Dr. Paul Luning, chief medical officer at PCC Wellness Center — a Federally Qualified Health Center that West Suburban used to contract services from and which hosted doctors doing their residencies at the hospital — said reopening the hospital will prove to be a challenge.
“It’s clearly a very difficult thing if a hospital closes, even if it’s just for a week, to get the public’s confidence back and hire back all the staff that left,” Luning said. “The hospitals that we’ve been partnered with, or have been aware of that have closed, have not reopened.”
“I wish there were more templates,” Harmon said of hospitals that have closed and reopened. “It’s a private business. We don’t have the authority nor the tools to wade in and reopen it ourselves. It’s frustrating, but we’re trying to figure out what tools we have at our disposal to encourage a prompt reopening of health care services at that site, so that the patients have access to the health care they need in a safe and secure environment.”
Solutions through legislation
Before West Suburban announced its closure in March, State Sen. Laura Fine and State Rep. Robyn Gabel proposed legislation that requires hospitals to file plans for potential full or partial closure with the state — including how to transfer patients safely to other facilities, identifying potential service gaps, and a plan for employees.
“I don’t think that West Suburban followed the intent or spirit of the law in announcing the closure in the way that they did. No community should be blindsided by this news of this import. If they had given more concrete notice, there are all sorts of stakeholders who might have had better ideas than an overnight closure,” Harmon said. “I’m just not sure that West Suburban followed the right protocol. My understanding is that they used a notice provision that would apply if you were shutting down one of your departments temporarily. … Not ‘We’re turning off all the lights in the hospital and going home.’”
As state representatives explore ways to prevent another sudden hospital closure like West Suburban’s, Harmon said that departments that regulate hospitals are also engaged and looking for ways to help.
“I’m just not sure the profit motive goes well with a community hospital,” Harmon added.
Examples from bankrupt hospitals
Dr. Theresa Chapple, a public health professional and former health director for the Village of Oak Park, helped lead an April 6 meeting to make a community-led plan for how to reopen West Suburban. After nearly 80 people attended, over half signed up for working groups that cover politics, legal background, leadership models, community needs, partnerships, and messaging.
Chapple said such working groups were one of the first things she saw in her preliminary research of other hospitals that closed, then reopened in recent years.
In Massachusetts, the nonprofit Northern Berkshire Healthcare fully shuttered North Adams Regional Hospital in 2014 after the hospital’s 129 years of operation. When the hospital declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2014, Berkshire Medical Center bought the facility for $3.4 million and $600,000 for the Northern Berkshire Family Practice.
North Adams Regional Hospital reopened a decade later as a part of Berkshire Health Systems. In 2024, the hospital reopened as a critical access hospital, recognized by the federal government for its necessary role in a rural area since North Adams’ population is about 12,000.
Steward Health Care was once the largest private hospital system in the country, operating over 30 hospitals across multiple states. But in May 2024, Steward Health Care filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with over $9 billion in liabilities. While a majority of its hospitals got new management, fresh ownership often took the reins while the hospital they bought remained open.
Though Patlola said in March that he was talking with Insight Hospital & Medical Center about becoming the new owner of West Suburban, Insight bought Mercy Hospital on Chicago’s South Side for $1 while the hospital was still open and had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.