West Suburban Medical Center (WSMC) has misled the community about the need for a new building to increase its emergency department capacity to 50,000 patients per year. The Sept. 20, 2005, WSMC Community Meeting Fact Sheet says that the ER was “constructed to serve 35,000 patients a year” and the “capacity of the proposed new department: 50,000 patients.” This implies that about 50 percent more capacity/space is needed to expand to 50,000 patients a year. In the subsequent Neighborhood Advisory Committee meetings, several alternatives were considered, then rejected because they did not provide 50 percent more ER space.
At the Aug. 17 Oak Park Plan Commission meeting, Dr. Roy Horras, ER head, testified that the building was remodeled in the 1990s to handle 44,000 patients per year (see “Neighbor says West Sub misled on ER capacity,” Wednesday Journal, Aug. 23).
Now that we know the ER only needs an additional capacity increase of 6,000, up from 44,000 patients per year, or 15 percent, I feel that the Neighborhood Advisory Committee incorrectly rejected the possibility of remodeling/reconfiguring the existing hospital. If the hospital only needs 15 percent instead of 50 percent more space in the ER, then they could get that by expanding the existing ER northward into space currently occupied by the pharmacy and the part of radiology that does not require high ceilings. These services could be moved to the northeast part of the first floor of the hospital campus, which is all offices now. The offices could be moved into the unused upper floors, 5-7, of the old School of Nursing building.
Rehabbing would cost $600,000 per floor, according to a hospital building person that I spoke to before the Dec. 15 Neighborhood Advisory Committee meeting.
The current ER is next to radiology, so has quick access to that service; but part of radiology has to be duplicated in the new ER building to provide the same quick access.
This, plus the overall cost of a new building budgeted at $28 million, makes me think that remodeling part of the existing hospital is a much more sensible, cost-effective way to expand the ER capacity by 15 percent, rather than building a new building. (Source: “The estimated cost for the new ED is $28 million.” Oct. 19, 2005, WSHC meeting minutes) The hospital nearly went bankrupt in 2000 trying to pay the interest on $80 million in debt from the two previous hospital expansions, which is why the hospital had to merge with a larger health system (see http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_12_57/ai_n6068596/print).
I think the hospital is an asset to our community, so I want to ensure its long-term financial viability, but I don’t think another building is the way to do it. There are two other hospitals within a two-mile radius, three large medical centers are nearby on the expressway, and the Oak Park area population has been declining since the 1970s. So spending $28 million on a new building is unlikely to increase the number of patients and hospital income.
Joseph Steffen
Oak Park
