Thursday, May 19, 2011
Crain's Chicago Business
by Associated Press

(AP) — Eight days after an Illinois board denied Cook County's request to close a hospital, a Chicago lawmaker introduced an amendment to free the county from the board's authority.

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat, introduced a legislative amendment Wednesday that would allow Cook County to close hospitals without approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

That board denied Cook County's request to close Oak Forest Hospital in Chicago's southern suburbs on May 10. The rare and possibly unprecedented vote to deny the closure of a hospital hinged on one vote.

Five votes were needed to approve the closure. The single "no" vote sank the county's request 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 have said in the past that we were concerned that our strategic plan ... could be derailed because of one 'nay' vote from someone who is not as familiar as we are to the needs of our patients or the communities we serve," said Cook County Health and Hospitals System spokesman Lucio Guerrero on Thursday.

The county health system's strategic plan, which took almost two years to develop, was approved by the independent board that oversees the health system and by county commissioners, Guerrero said.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle supports the amendment, although she didn't ask Currie to introduce it, said Preckwinkle spokeswoman Jessey Neves.

Supporters of keeping the hospital open criticized the amendment. Lynda DeLaforgue of Citizen Action Illinois called the move an attempt to make an "end run" around the state board.

"Why should the area of Illinois with the most low income and uninsured residents be exempt from any law that seeks to protect access to care and quality care?" DeLaforgue said. "It is sad to see two great reformers like Rep. Currie and President Preckwinkle go down this wrong path."

The county had planned to close Oak Forest Hospital on June 1 and was caught without a backup plan for keeping the hospital open. Surgeries were halted earlier this week when the suburban Chicago hospital's lone anesthesiologist retired.

The county hoped to save $25 million to $40 million with the hospital's closure and conversion to an outpatient clinic.

Cook County's health care system provides $500 million annually in free care and serves more than 800,000 patients. It has been struggling with rising medical costs, diminishing federal help and patients who can't pay their bills.

The state board rarely deals with hospital closures. It more often reviews proposals from for-profit companies and nonprofit health systems 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.

Illinois Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, said "the bizarre outcome" of a single vote overturning a county-approved plan illustrates problems that still exist with the state board. In 2008, Garrett co-chaired a task force that proposed overhauls to the board in the wake of a kickback scandal that eventually helped bring down former Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Garrett acknowledged that exempting Cook County from the board's authority could create more problems. She declined to fault Quinn for failing to fill vacancies on the board.

"I'm not blaming it on anybody," Garrett said. "I'm not pointing the finger. There are problems that seem to not have been resolved and this case highlights that. We can't go against the will of the commissioners of Cook County. This is their responsibility."