Back in March, a series of management failures led to the shut down of West Suburban Medical Center, despite owner Manoj K. Prasad’s claims to be an expert in medical technology systems and hospital management.
The closure of West Sub and subsequent lawsuits between Prasad and business partner and landlord Rathnaker Reddy Patlola dominated local headlines for months. But with few exceptions, those most traumatized have not been heard from.
The morning after Patlola agreed to buy out Prasad’s 60% share of Resilience Healthcare, West Side pastor Rev. Robin Hood convened a press conference. Standing with him were some 20 former hospital employees and patients.
It was a mix of celebration, venting and tentative catharsis.
Tabitha Valencia worked as a patient care tech in the hospital’s emergency department for 29 years (“and nine months”) before she was laid off. She said she was “overwhelmed” and “thankful” for the new ownership.
She became emotional when she spoke of arriving at work in 2021, and realizing she couldn’t breathe. Her 8 hour shift that day was spent not working in the emergency department, but as a patient.
“If they were closed, it could have been a whole different situation. I thank God they were open,” Valencia said.
Dawn Anderson was furloughed in May after working in West Sub’s medical records department for 32 years. She hopes to see a more open process with the new ownership and management.
Anderson apologized for getting emotional. “I was there for 32 years,” she said. “There was so much taken away from us, not only patients but employees. People’s unemployment ran out. I don’t know who (controls) the medical records.”
“I’m praying to God that we recover,” Anderson said, fighting tears. “This is a traumatic experience. For everyone.”
Ieliot Jackson has been a patient at West Sub, and is a member of the Coalition to Save Safety Net Hospitals. He spent well more than 20 hours mostly sitting silently on a courtroom bench next to Hood at the Daley Center as the legal battle between Prasad and Patlola ground on.
“It’s been ‘hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait,’” Jackson said Sept. 15.
“This was just one fight that was won. The battle is still on. Because we need these institutions in our community.”
“Our community has been at the greatest disadvantage since March,” Jackson said. Jackson looked over at Valencia and noted her nearly 30 years of service. “Not being able to reap the rewards for her service is a disservice to our community as a whole,” he said.
Clabe Johnson, another founding member of the hospital coalition, who had also sat through tedious hours of court proceedings, said the West Sub closure had “been really devastating to our community.”
“We view the hospital as an asset to our community, and it’s a much needed institution in our community. It’s really been hard for our people to find adequate healthcare.”
“They’re not doing healthcare as a human right,” Johnson added. “Our communities suffer the worst in these situations.”
When Hood asked the furloughed West Sub employees to step forward and say how long they’d worked at the hospital, people replied one by one; “22 years,” one said. “27,” said another, then “23,” and “27,” and “29 and a half” and “32 years.”
“That’s over a hundred and some years of experience,” Hood said.
Henry Barlow, pastor of Morningstar Baptist Church of Chicago, who sits on the Insight Chicago board, said “Safety net hospitals, they have saved so many lives.”
In the reported deal, Patlola would sell West Sub and Weiss Memorial to Insight Chicago. It currently operates the former Mercy Hospital on the Near South Side and is headquartered in Michigan.
He vowed to see that the new owners served the community. “Not only are we concerned about the residents in the communities where the hospitals sit, but also the employees that the hospitals have.”
“This is my heart beat, my passion,” Barlow said. “To make sure that our people have the best quality of life.” He said that as he spoke Thursday, the CEO of Insight, Atif Bawahab, was “reading through the settlement that was reached last night.”
“We don’t know all the details,” Barlow said. “Off the top of my head, we’re talking about four months (before re-opening),” Barlow said.
“We’re asking that you give us a chance to look through some of the things, trying to find out what it’s going to take to make (West Sub) operational again. We need your help,” Barlow said of the public. “We need your understanding. And we certainly need your prayers.”
The fight is not over, all agreed, nor is the threat to the health of many west siders. Hood said the long trips to alternative hospitals in the wake of West Sub’s closure can have lethal consequences.
“Those extra blocks, those extra miles, could cost you your life,” he said.
Hood said his group has asked Insight Health officials to meet with community organizations “within 30 days,” to set a public timeline for restoring services on both campuses and to give residents a standing role in decisions about care.
Hood also said they are asking the Illinois General Assembly to hold subject matter hearings on safety net hospitals statewide.
“What we are demanding is that the community have a say in the vetting process,” said Jackson. “The community had no say in the closing of Weiss and West Suburban.”
Anderson said she had a dream about a reborn and renewed West Sub Hospital, one in which there were “People coming in and out, greeting one another, expressing love, concern.”
She said she prays for “people to get care in a loving environment, a wholesome environment.”
“That’s my dream, that’s my goal, my heart and my passion.”