Oak Park West Suburban hospital patients left without service amid Resilience Health suspension

OAK PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- There were more signs of change Thursday around West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park after the news the facility would suspend patient operations.

Employees who were assigned the task of covering the "Emergency" sign at West Suburban hospital battled the wind as the hospital is expected to stop operations Friday.

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Antonio Brown works in environmental services there. He says he is taking his personal belongings home like other employees are doing.

"I've watched this hospital go down month by month nurses disappearing doctors," Brown said.

In a Wednesday statement from Dr. Manoj Prasad, the CEO of Resilience Health said West Suburban and Weiss hospitals operations are being suspended until a billing problem is fixed.

"Yesterday they said we couldn't file for unemployment because of the furlough, so I think that's a lot of bologna," Brown said.

Some Oak Park and West Side patients that have depended on the hospital for years are just finding out.

"It's tragic, it's convenient for a lot of people in the neighborhood," patient Jerry Farrow said. "It's gonna be hard so many of them closing to find a good place."

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"It's wrong because we need healthcare in this community we need healthcare, so them closing just like that that's not good for the community, that's not good," patient Dedria Earls said.

On Thursday, management at West Suburban declined clarifying any details or making any comment.

"It's devastating. I feel like this hospital has been the lifeblood of this community, and so many residents in this community depend on it," hospice liaison Kelli Christensen said.

"We are very much impacted. There is not much that we have for our senior services, so this is going to be sad for everybody in the community," said Natasha Pekovitch with Center Home for Hispanic Elderly.

Mary Harris lives nearby and says she has been a patient there for 30 years.

"No they are not thinking about the patients. If they were thinking about the patients they would find a way to keep it open," Harris said. "I think it's so unfair. If they could have it that long, they could have done something to keep it."

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board reports the suspension in services requires the owner to file a report every 30 days, and if the suspension is not lifted after a year, the owner needs to file for an extension or discontinue operations permanently.

The furloughs come seven month after Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown, which is also owned by Resilience, was largely shuttered.

Weiss Hospital stopped in-patient and emergency care months ago when it was kicked off the Medicare program over conditions inside the hospital.