Since last August, Weiss Memorial Hospital has been emptied of the thousands of patients it once served in Uptown on the North Side, regardless of whether they had insurance or cash to pay for healthcare.
Earlier this year, the facility's owner, Resilience Healthcare, was forced to shut down another safety-net hospital, West Suburban Medical Center, which led to an opened state inquiry into millions of dollars in state funds, and a prolonged court battle over the future of both hospitals.
At an Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board meeting on Tuesday, Resilience Healthcare CEO Manoj Prasad faced the possibility of losing Weiss Memorial Hospital's license to operate, but instead, the board granted him six more months to clear up a long list of compliance and financial obligations it has so far failed to honor.
It was on June 18, 2025, in the middle of a severe Chicago heat wave, when Weiss Memorial hospital faced a crisis after its Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning system broke, leading to 90-degree temperatures in some of its emergency rooms.
According to state regulators, the infrastructure failure forced Weiss Memorial's management to evacuate all inpatients and transfer them to other facilities.
Prasad said the HVAC failure was due to past ownership, and the hospital could be reopened in a matter of weeks.
"Many of our previous owners have sort of decided to kick the can down the road, and we, a lot of the upgrades that should have happened with the HVAC system unfortunately did not happen," Prasad said at a June 18, 2025, news conference. "They've ordered the parts and as soon as that arrives... It's a guess-timate at this point, but we're looking at a couple of weeks."
But in the months that followed, more problems would hit the hospital.
State and federal regulators investigated the evacuation and facility conditions, finding several critical compliance issues, including nursing and emergency staffing, as well as problems with the building itself.
On Aug. 8, 2025, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services revoked the hospital's reimbursement agreement, cutting off most of the facility's revenue. Weiss locked its front doors and terminated all remaining care, including shutting down its emergency department, and state regulators issued a temporary suspension of its operating license.
On Tuesday, Joseph Hylak-Reinholtz, an attorney representing Resilience Healthcare, told the state review board Resilience Healthcare is appealing that CMS revocation, as well as state regulators who are seeking to recoup more than $27 million in unpaid taxes and fees.
"We want to see what happens in both of these matters before making a decision on Weiss," Hylak-Reinholtz said, with Prasad sitting beside him.
According to the review board's staff report, board members could have approved a temporary extension with "conditions to ensure accountability." But after eight affirmative votes, the board granted the extension with no such conditions.
The "temporary license suspension" for Weiss Memorial Hospital is now in effect through Feb. 8, 2027.
It's a short-term victory for Prasad, who is currently in a protracted legal battle over his own future at Resilience Healthcare.
As the I-Team previously reported, between Weiss and West Suburban Medical Center, Resilience Healthcare owes taxpayers at least $104.8 million in unpaid taxes, fees and advanced loans issued by the state for repairs.
Prasad himself is in negotiations with his business partner and both facilities' landlord, Rathnaker Patlola. At one point, those discussions included the possibility of Prasad exiting Resilience entirely. But negotiations are still ongoing.
Until that is settled, the future of both safety net hospitals, which served thousands of people a year and employed hundreds of staff, is unknown.