After West Suburban Medical Center announced last week that all patient services would be shuttered, the person who owns the real estate said he is looking for a new entity to reopen and operate the hospital.
While Resilience Healthcare owns West Suburban — and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood, which closed last summer — Ramco Healthcare Holdings bought the hospital properties and leases them to Resilience Healthcare.
Rathnaker Reddy, owner of Ramco, said in statement that, in response to West Suburban’s closure, he’s reached out to Insight Hospital & Medical Center. Previously Mercy Hospital, Insight bought the struggling South Side institution in 2021, when it was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Reddy said Insight is willing to engage with West Sub.
“Insight is able to support preserving healthcare services at West Suburban Hospital, similar to the role we played in maintaining Mercy Hospital,” said Insight CEO Atif Bawahab in a statement. “Our mission is to step into complex situations and maintain continuity of care for the sake of the community.”
Reddy was not available for additional comment, but his public relations representative said Reddy’s “only interest is in seeing the hospital continue to operate and serve the community. He’s evaluating all legal options to ensure that happens and is hopeful that Dr. Prasad will not be an obstacle in that effort.”
Manoj Prasad has been the CEO of Resilience Healthcare for the past three years.
Reddy said in his statement that he’s also open to engaging other hospital systems and healthcare organizations which might want to take over management and clinical operations at the hospital.
“West Suburban has long served as an essential safety net institution for residents on Chicago’s West Side and in the surrounding west suburban communities,” Reddy said in his statement. “The loss of services, particularly in such a timely manner, will have a profound and lasting impact on access to care and community health outcomes. … Our shared goal must be to prevent the permanent loss of critical clinical services and to protect the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”
When West Suburban announced its closure to staff the morning of March 25, Prasad sent employees an email that said, over the last year, the West Suburban’s Electronic Medical Record system has failed to bill for over half of the hospital’s services, resulting in a financial crisis and inability to pay employees. While many employees will be furloughed, Prasad said patient services will be reinstated once the billing system starts working.
In 2022, Reddy told Austin Weekly News that he was considering expanding his hospital holdings when Prasad asked him to be involved in the purchase.
“I’m very interested in being [involved] in American hospitals, because I think healthcare is a human right,” he said. “I won’t say basic [right], but a human right.”