Odds and ends with some a bit odder than others:
“Two bad actors”: After a Cook County judge on Monday left Manoj Prasad in charge of the Resilience Healthcare empire of shuttered hospitals, a former staffer at West Sub told our reporters that both Prasad and Rathnaker Reddy Patlola, the landlord and partial owner of the empire, were “two bad actors.”
That is correct.
The unraveled West Sub, once a stellar community hospital, remains in the swirl, circling the drain. The judge said there was no evidence that Prasad had looted either West Sub or the previously-shutdown Weiss Memorial in Uptown. On that basis, the judge ruled that Prasad should remain the CEO and suggested that Patlola could not have done much better in running West Sub. Running West Sub into the ditch?
I’ve long believed that for Patlola these failed hospitals would ultimately be a profitable real estate play. The Weiss property in the city clearly has redevelopment prospects. The River Forest campus of West Sub could be another regional hospital’s outpost in that highly insured neighborhood. Or it could be a midrise?
As for Prasad as CEO of nothing, he should never get the benefit of any doubt. He let the billing system of the hospital flail and sputter for a year. He has made his preeminent excuse for why West Sub abruptly shut down in March that the hospital did not bill 90% of its revenue for a year. What kind of moronic CEO lets that happen?
So yes, two bad actors, a shuttered West Sub failing the West Side and Oak Park, and dim prospects for a way forward. There are more court dates to come. The somnambulant state of Illinois is presumably investigating how it kept shoveling millions to a hospital operator who could not generate an invoice. And reports begin to circulate of criminal investigations.
Hands off the wheel: A friend on Sunday took me for a spin in his new self-driving car. I got to sit behind the wheel not that I had much to do. Yes, it was a Tesla. Yes, I am deeply troubled.
But it was a remarkable experience. I had expected to feel fully unnerved. But once the damned machine smoothly merged us onto the Ike at Harlem, my impulse to seize control eased.
And that was part of the message from my friend. He said that at a somewhat advanced age he had learned not to drive 80 mph and to be patient as the machine stayed at the limit, found a parking space at the Jewel and has never sounded its horn at a putz driving its own car.
News from NEWSWELL Chicago: Two pieces of news from your local nonprofit newsroom. On June 10 we’re hosting a town hall at Oak Park’s main library to answer your questions about our new ownership structure. Come and ask Max Reinsdorf, our general manager, any curious, impertinent question you’ve got. Veterans Room at 7 p.m.
Also, we are welcoming Emma Bradford, the first of our three paid summer interns. Emma will be covering stories for both our Austin Weekly News and Forest Park Review.
