by CYRYL JAKUBOWSKI
Our Lady of the Resurrection
Medical Center officials are exploring options that would change the function
of the hospital from an inpatient facility to an outpatient and primary care
facility with an emergency room, according to Alderman Timothy Cullerton
(38th).
Cullerton said that his office
has received numerous calls from residents about rumors that the hospital, 5645
W. Addison St., is closing. He said that as a result he arranged a meeting with
hospital officials and state and local government representatives and that the
officials assured him that the hospital will change its function but will not
close.
“They gave a presentation about .
. . their intentions and that their presence in our community would be
diminished, and that they were thinking about going from an in-house facility
to a more patient-care business,” Cullerton said.
Cullerton said that hospital
officials said that demand for in-patient care has decreased by 8 percent in
Illinois and by 10 percent in the nation. He said that officials said that
their operating losses have been between $7 million and $10 million each year
for the past 5 or 6 years but that some staff members have said that those
figures are inflated.
“The community has been very
supportive of this hospital for the past five or six decades, and we would not
like it to leave,” Cullerton said. “They say that the beds are not being
filled, and they certainly can do what they want because things are changing in
the health care business, but I am concerned.”
State Representative John Mulroe
(D-10) said that hospital officials reported that only about 80 of the 269 beds
in the hospital are occupied.
“They seem to think that they
need to restructure that business,” Mulroe said. “It sounds to me that they are
going to go where the business is going, which is more about outpatient
services and not inpatient care. OLR had been losing money and I think it would
be in their best interest to be transparent about their profits and tell people
what is going on.”
Cullerton said that hospital
officials plan to keep the emergency room open, but that in order for that to
happen, they must keep at least 100 beds at the hospital under state law. He
said that a public meeting will be held on the issue in the near future.
“Some services like obstetrics
and pediatrics would be diminished, but I don’t know how that would work,”
Cullerton said. “My primary concern is how this will affect the community and
what is going to happen. I want people to be transparent about this.”
“I told them bluntly that to me
this is an abandonment of our community and that some of the people feel that
way, but the jury is still out on this and we will keep our eyes open,”
Cullerton said.
The hospital is part of Presence
Health, the largest Catholic health system in the state, which was created in
2011 through the merger of Resurrection Health Care and Provena Health.
Presence has 12 hospitals and about 22,000 employees, 4,000 medical
professionals and a $3 billion revenue base.
The hospital opened as Northwest
Hospital in 1955, and it changed its name to John F. Kennedy Medical Center in
1986. An intensive care unit opened in 1969, and the hospital was formed as a
nonprofit institution in 1968.
The hospital became a part of
Resurrection Health Care in 1988, and Chicago-based Resurrection Health Care
and Mokena-based Provena Health merged in 2011.
Resurrection operates six
hospitals, Our Lady of the Resurrection, Resurrection Medical Center, 7435 W.
Talcott Ave., Saint Joseph Hospital, 2900 N. Lake Shore Drive, Saints Mary and
Elizabeth Medical Center, 2233 W. Division St., Holy Family Medical Center, 100
N. River Road, Des Plaines, and Saint Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave.,
Evanston. The system is sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth
and the Sisters of the Resurrection.
Provena also operates six
hospitals, Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana, Provena Mercy Medical
Center in Aurora, Provena Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, Provena Saint Joseph
Medical Center in Joliet, Provena Saint Mary's Hospital in Kankakee and Provena
United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville. Provena health ministries are
sponsored by the Franciscan Sister of the Sacred Heart, the Servants of the
Holy Heart of Mary and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.
In response to some of the plans,
a Web site that contains a petition to “save the hospital” has been set up at www.olrourhospital.org.
The Web
site contains a statement attributed to “Medical Staff of Our Lady of
Resurrection” that says, “Our administrative leaders tell us we are single-handedly
bringing down Presence Healthcare because of poor financial performance.
Remember that less than a year ago we were the model of efficiency which was
touted by all the Presence leadership.”
The
statement continues, “All of this has occurred, despite having the leanest
staffing of all Presence health institutions. The number of patients has not
declined substantially and the payor mix is no worse than our competitors. When
we ask how the numbers have changed so drastically, we are told to trust them
and that they have changed the accounting methods and say that all the prior
numbers were miscalculated.”
The Web site contains a petition
seeking signatures in support of keeping the hospital open with an intensive
care unit and operating rooms. “The proposed conversion to a lesser service
facility will endanger the well being of our community,” the site states.
“What is happening is that OLR is
being looked at to meet the needs of health care in the community,” Our Lady of
the Resurrection spokeswoman Maria Salemi said. “Health care is changing, and
as an organization we are looking at a number of options and if those options
are being met at OLR. We are not closing. Closing is not one of the options.”
