A long awaited community meeting on the status of the shuttered West Suburban Medical Center took place inside a crowded room in a West Side church basement Monday evening.
The 90-minute meeting had a horse-out-of-the-barn vibe to it, with numerous speakers mourning the slow decline and closure of a once preeminent medical institution. It also offered a compelling mix of personal story, expert insight and some needed critique of the state’s medical bureaucracy.
West Sub, which was heavily used by West Side residents, closed suddenly in March, and is not expected to open until sometime well into next year, if it ever reopens.
The operational aspect of the medical center, but not the property itself, was sold to Insight Health Systems in mid-September, after the complex’s landlord, Reddy Rathnaker Patlola bought out his business partner, Manoj Prasad.
The meeting at the Sunrise Missionary Baptist Church was hosted by State Senator Don Harmon and State Rep. Camille Lilly, both of whom represent Oak Park and parts of Austin and the West Side. Deputy Governor Grace Hou was also present.
Lilly, herself a safety net hospital executive, said the healthcare crisis caused by West Sub’s closure has been a “priority for the past umpteen months.”
“You are here today to share with us, and our partners in the state, what collectively we need and what collectively we need to do,” Lilly said. “What services need to be provided so you can have the best health outcome for you and your family.”
“We need to better understand the healthcare services the community needs and how we can meet those needs,” Harmon said.
“When I was first elected to the senate it was drilled into me that West Suburban Hospital was the single largest employer in Oak Park, as well as the preeminent healthcare provider in our community,” Harmon said.
It’s been, Harmon said, “very difficult to watch the long and painful decline under a series of for-profit-owners.” He said the central question is “Will we have reliable access to quality healthcare in the community.”
The sense of loss and frustration in the room, both of healthcare and of trust in the state system of hospital oversight, was palpable, as was the sense of hope in the possibility of meaningful change.
Harmon expressed frustration that the recent resolution of a lawsuit between Patlola and Prasad was effectively a private matter with massive repercussions for the public. He also warned against being satisfied with merely re-opening West Sub, saying, “We should not view opening a closed hospital as progress.”
West Sub, he said, needs not just to re-open, but re-open as a quality healthcare provider. “The only thing worse than a closed hospital is a bad open hospital,” he said.
Irving Sawyer, who said he worked for 40 years in hospital administration, warned against “getting so thrilled with the concept of getting the place back open.”
“It ain’t that easy,” he said. “You lost your Medicare certification. You can’t just go to Medicare and say I’d like it back.”
“You won’t get it back in anything less than nine months.”
James Hammonds, an attorney, said he did “a lot of research” into the application and vetting process Prasad and Patlola underwent for approval to buy West Sub.
“I have to say, the state of Illinois is partially at fault,” Hammonds said, saying state regulators didn’t hold Prasad and Patlola accountable to explain their plans for the hospital and show proof they had the means to operate it properly.
“They let ‘em do whatever they wanted to do,” said Hammond. He urged the state to require, going forward, that parties applying to take over hospitals file reports detailing “what they’re going to do, how they’re going to raise the money, what kind of programs they’re going to have.”
“And they need to make certain that those programs are in fact maintained. And then report it back to us as a community.”
Harmon stepped up after Hammond’s comments and acknowledged the state could have done better.
“James made a really good point,” Harmon said. “The State of Illinois has some culpability here. We oversaw this hospital. The problem is, the only solution was closing the hospital. And nobody wanted to walk in and close the hospital.”
“So maybe we hoped against hope too long,” Harmon said.
The ramifications of West Sub’s closure are profound. Pastor Dwight Gunn quoted statistics indicating that for every five blocks a patient travels in an ambulance “you lose 1% of the chance of surviving a critical incident.”
The 34 blocks many West Siders must travel for medical care with West Sub closed, Gunn said, equates to a 7% lower chance of survival.
Clabe Johnson spoke of the heartbreaking consequences of that reality. Johnson’s mother suffered a seizure and had to wait an agonizing 20 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, and another 20 minutes to get to Rush Oak Park Hospital on Oak Park’s far west side.
“The damage that she suffered, it was just was so tremendous,” Johnson said. “We’re still fighting to bring her back, and that’s why this fight is so personal.”
The court battle between Patlola and Prasad, Johnson said, ignored any human factor. “They was just two friends fighting over money,” he said. “They both was scamming.”
“We need a watchdog for these safety net hospitals,” said Johnson.
Harmon noted that West Sub’s private ownership still owed the state $20 million for state loans, and $104 million in back taxes, and said he’s had enough.
“I’m tired of this,” he said. “We aren’t getting took again. No more grifters. Let’s get a healthcare provider in.”