As I read Wednesday Journal last week [West Sub on the brink, News, Aug. 13], I was very concerned about various comments made about Oak Park hospitals, both pro and con.
First, when there is a discussion of different organizations who “gave up” on West Suburban Hospital, I feel Loyola Health was unfairly portrayed. Loyola Health acquired West Sub as its first “feeder” hospital, along with MacNeal and Gottlieb. Loyola has become the major west suburban tertiary-care medical center with well-renowned cardiac, burn and major trauma programs as well as a 57-bed Level 1 Emergency Room.
The problem Loyola had, though, is that it is frozen at 575 inpatient beds and major programs that require significant pediatric, surgery, orthopaedic, maxillofacial/ENT support. In order to meet this new challenge Loyola has closed beds in numerous other units especially Inpatient Psychiatry, in order to remain under state-mandated caps. The three acquired hospitals allowed for patients to be transferred to another Loyola Medicine-managed hospital to ensure continuity of care. (I was the Thursday p.m. social worker for the Loyola ER for 25 years and was directly affected by the closure of the inpatient psych unit at Loyola since this closure put on us the responsibility for arranging an inpatient bed at another hospital for patients needing psych admissions.)
MacNeal and Gottlieb have thrived under this arrangement; sadly West Sub did not, due to opposition to having another Catholic hospital in Oak Park. Despite major investments into West Sub, Loyola Medicine could see that community physicians and many patients found this to be a problem, so they sold the hospital. One of the key attractions to Loyola Medicine were the vibrant residency program in OB-GYN, Family Medicine and Internal Medicine, which allowed Loyola Medicine to expand its already large and varied medical school and residency/fellowship programs, especially the Family Medicine Residency Program. Sadly, all three outstanding programs went out of business with successors.
I was very disappointed by West Sub owner Dr. Prasad’s unfair characterization of Rush Oak Park Hospital as a small, less desirable hospital. My experience as a family member, patient, and Emergency Room LCSW is totally different; in fact, Rush Oak Park is my preferred hospital. In my ER role, I often recommended the Rush Oak Park ER as a high-quality, less-frenetic ER that has the full-resources Rush Medical Center to back it up.
I have had numerous friends with critical medical problems who were stabilized then transferred to main Rush for comprehensive care. When my late father was hospitalized there for a routine problem he received exemplary ER and short-term inpatient care. The on-campus office center and the clinic at North and Harlem bring the very best outpatient care to our village. Their phlebotomists and lab are superb. And they have brought independent practices on campus for non-Rush-provided services.
The Rush emergency stroke intervention unit-on-wheels spends time on campus. And their ER gave me outstanding care. It’s a gem.
Frank Vozak
Oak Park