Thursday, May 12, 2011
SouthtownStar
by Carla Johnson

Legal options are among those being analyzed by Cook County officials after a state board’s rare and possibly unprecedented vote to deny the closure of a hospital.

The vote was 4 to 1, but because five votes were needed to approve the closure, the single “no” vote sank the county’s request and gave an embattled charity hospital more time to serve low-income patients.

The vote caught county officials without a backup plan for keeping Oak Forest Hospital operating.

For months, they have transferred staff and wound down services at the hospital. Now they are figuring out how to reverse course enough to keep staffing levels safe for patients at a hospital they had planned to close June 1.

“We have to make sure our staffing levels are up to patient safety, and obviously that’s our No. 1 concern,” Cook County Health and Hospitals System spokesman Lucio Guerrero said.

Even food service workers were given notice that their jobs would be ending, Guerrero said, so now officials must make sure patients will be fed.

County officials haven’t given up on their cost-saving plan to convert the hospital into an outpatient clinic, and, while there’s no legal strategy spelled out, going to court to fight the state board’s intervention is an option, Guerrero said.

The county hoped to save $25 million to $40 million with the hospital’s closure. Current budgets are based on it.

The county is exploring everything “from legal options to procedural options to operational options,” Guerrero said. “We still think, within the confines of our budget, the right thing to do is provide health care by doing this,” he said of the planned conversion of the facility into a large regional outpatient care center.

Tuesday’s vote by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to deny the hospital closure was possibly unique in the board’s history.

Courtney Avery, the panel’s administrator, said Wednesday she can’t remember the board ever voting down a hospital closure.

The denial hinged on one vote because of an absence and three vacancies. The board should have nine voting members but has three spots Gov. Pat Quinn has yet to fill.

“We are actively vetting candidates to fill vacancies on the board,” Quinn spokeswoman Annie Thompson said Wednesday, adding that’s been an ongoing priority, not linked to the vote this week.

Five of six voting members showed up for Tuesday’s meeting. That allowed one “no” vote — by consumer advocate Ronald Eaker, of Urbana — to determine the outcome of Cook County’s request.

Eaker didn’t immediately return phone messages from The Associated Press on Wednesday, but he explained his vote during the meeting, mentioning his health experiences compelled him to work for improved access to care. He said he saw nothing in Cook County’s proposal “that will address helpful access to care for this community.”

Medical bills after a series of heart attacks forced Eaker and his wife into bankruptcy because a doctors group wouldn’t accept his insurance, according to a profile of Eaker published in The News-Gazette newspaper in Champaign last year. The newspaper article portrayed the Republican former minister as a champion for patients. Eaker, now 63, was recommended by Champaign County Health Care Consumers for the planning board appointment.

At Tuesday’s meeting, low-income patients, union members and church leaders from the Southland showed up with signs and testified to the board. But their political clout was puny compared with the county’s, said Lynda DeLaforgue, co-director of Citizen Action Illinois, which wants county officials to keep operating the south suburban hospital.

“There was tremendous political pressure on that board to close the hospital,” DeLaforgue said. “I don’t see how they could not feel that political pressure.”

Hospital closures rarely come before the board. More often, it deals with proposals to open hospitals, dialysis centers and nursing homes. The goal is to avoid duplication of services that could drive up the cost of health care.

It’s been difficult to find candidates who meet all the legal requirements to serve on the volunteer board, said Thompson, of the governor’s office.

Board members must be knowledgeable about health care but can’t have a financial interest in or a business relationship with a health care facility. Immediate family members can’t have financial conflicts of interest. No more than five board members can be from the same political party. And four must live outside the Chicago area.

“Finding people who meet all of those is challenging,” Thompson said. “We want to make sure we are doing exactly that.”