On Wednesday morning in a crowded boardroom at West Suburban, there was a joint but oddly adversarial press conference as State Rep. La Shawn Ford had seemingly demanded and cajoled Dr. Manoj Prasad, the hospital’s CEO, into answering questions from the press.
While the seldom-seen Prasad really, really wanted to paint a heroic portrait of himself as the man who saved West Sub from bankruptcy three-and-a-half years ago, Ford kept steering him back to the harsh light of reality – we were all standing in a hospital that had been abruptly shuttered last week and the promise was that its CEO was going to explain his plan to get it reopened by July.
You see, the whole problem, Prasad said many times, is that one year and four days ago, the hospital was forced to switch to a new medical billing system. And it didn’t work. It looked like it was working. You could see numbers on a screen. But no bills were sent. And hence, no money arrived in the morning mail!
So, he said, again many times, the hospital was forced to survive on 10 to 12% of its usual revenues. And then, a year later it couldn’t survive. So it had to close two days later! Who knew this would be the outcome of having no money?
After a year of looking at numbers on a screen and having fancy consultants trying to spit out some invoices, Prasad said he recently went back to the “olden days” and started doing the charting and the billing on paper. He now has 110 people in a foreign country re-submitting 120,000 claims and sending the invoices out into the world.
And when he has enough money in the bank, by early summer, he says he will reopen the hospital. And then he’ll get back the hospital’s birthing unit and find a way to get the esteemed residency program accreditation back, and, no, he hasn’t forgotten that he closed Weiss Hospital in Uptown last year. By golly, he’s going to reopen Weiss, too.
After hearing multiple variations on this theme, a reporter finally asked Rep. Ford his level of confidence in Dr. Prasad’s bold plan for the future.
Ford, who at the outset of the press conference listed out all the tens of millions West Sub owes to the state which has repeatedly advanced it money, millions more in accounts payable, an overdue property tax bill, said he was not sure there was confidence in the current leadership. And near the end of the 90-minute press conference, he said that Prasad “had not made his case today.”
Asked about his conversations with Insight Hospital and Medical Center, which has expressed interest in taking over management of West Sub, Ford said, “Insight wants to help. They want to take over and have Prasad disappear.” That’s direct.
Dr. Chidinma Osineme, an Oak Parker and president of West Sub’s medical staff, stopped reporters in the hallway to say West Sub “needs new leadership” and that the 150 docs remaining on staff (there were 300 a year ago) “want a seat at the table” on all discussions.
Another day in the life of a forlorn West Sub.
