Just a few short years ago, the former owners of West Suburban Medical Center were facing insurmountable mountains of debt and declared bankruptcy. Despite a national search of potential buyers, they came up empty, and after more than 100 years of serving the people of Chicago, West Suburban was scheduled to close its doors for good in December of 2022.
That is when our organization, Resilience Healthcare stepped up. With the hospital’s bankruptcy we had no lender and no guarantees, but we agreed to assume ownership of West Suburban and its sister hospital, Weiss Memorial in Uptown, to keep both hospitals from shutting down.
We did not do this with dreams of personal profit or even an eventual windfall. I studied business in addition to medicine and at no point in my studies did my professors recommend buying hospitals with $80+ million in debt and a revolving door of former owners who tried and failed to make the hospitals viable.
We did this for one simple reason: communities do not need any more shuttered hospitals. The diverse families we serve deserve health care that is high-quality, expansive, and accessible — and they deserve it in their own neighborhoods. Health care access is a right and no one should lose access to that right because a hospital experiences financial difficulties.
With that mission in mind, we went to work at West Suburban, investing every dollar right back into the hospital to enhance equality for our patients. We set out to chart a better path forward, improving staffing, services, and equipment while embracing communities like Austin that had not previously felt welcome at the hospital.
We did so knowing that we would not be able to transform the hospital overnight, but that every step we took in the right direction meant better care and better outcomes for our patients. I’m proud to say that in the two years since, together with our amazing and dedicated team of resilient colleagues, we have taken a whole lot of steps in the right direction.
As other hospitals close, shut down departments, lay off large sections of staff and cut hours, West Suburban continues to hire staff and clinicians. In the past year alone, we have added over 200 staff members in various capacities. For patients, this means easier access to our services and a better overall experience.
We’re also enhancing our service offerings for our patients. We now have an experienced group of residency-trained OBGYNs present at all times to deliver babies. For high-risk expectant mothers, this brings potentially lifesaving expertise into our hospital as these providers are trained and experienced in handling such cases. For other new and expectant mothers, we are bringing on additional experienced OBGYNs to provide clinics to further enhance access and the quality of our care. And more broadly, we have developed a multi-specialty clinic with a range of specialists under one roof including a psychological counselor and a diet and nutrition counselor, to provide the comprehensive care our patients deserve.
Finally, we’re bringing in modern equipment to ensure we can give our patients the highest quality care. In just two years we’ve invested millions of dollars in new equipment across every department in our hospital. From new dialysis machines to dozens of new patient monitors, to dozens of new modern beds and mattresses, new stretchers, wheelchairs, new ultrasound equipment, new imaging and other diagnostic systems, a new computer system, a new Electronic Medical Record System, new operating room power equipment, new warming and comfort equipment for newborns, a new (850 ton) mammoth chiller, new boilers and much more.
We still have much work to do, but just two years out from narrowly averting catastrophe, West Suburban is moving in the right direction. We’re upgrading, we’re growing, and we’re looking to the future. This institution has served Chicago for more than 110 years. I’m determined that it sees another 110 and that those years be defined not by financial strife and crises but by the quality care we provide and the lives we save.
Dr. Manoj Prasad is the CEO of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.