Joliet nurses urge public pushback against hospital cuts

Nurses on Wednesday called for a public outcry against cuts at Saint Joseph Medical Center, a day after the two U.S. Senators from Illinois raised questions about new owner Prime Healthcare’s management of the Joliet hospital and two others.

The nurses’ town hall meeting in Joliet was scheduled before the release of the letter from Senators Richard Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. But many of the same issues were raised.

The senators and nurses accuse Prime Healthcare of going back on a pledge to Illinois regulators not to make any immediate reductions in services if allowed to acquire eight Illinois hospitals.

Since taking over the former Ascension hospitals on March 1, Prime Healthcare has:

• Eliminated inpatient pediatric care at Saint Joseph Medical Center

• Ended baby deliveries at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee, leading to a suspension of the Level II trauma designation for the hospital’s emergency room

• Lost Level II trauma designation at Mercy Medical Center in Aurora

“For our children in the community, we are praying that they will reconsider the change they have implemented,” said Raquel Mata, a pediatric nurse at Saint Joseph who decided to retire when her unit was shut down.

Kaitlynd French, a former nurse at Saint Joseph Medical Center and now a union organizer with the Illinois Nurses Association, urged Joliet residents to go to a June 24 meeting of state hospital regulators in Bolingbrook to speak out against the elimination of the pediatric unit.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board will meet at 9 a.m. at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.

“You guys do have a voice,” French said. “They can’t cherry pick who’s going to be able to come to our hospital.”

About 25 people attended the meeting, many of them hospital nurses.

But the small number of residents who were there said they were concerned about cuts at the Joliet hospital.

“Where are people with children going to go?” asked Gloria Kassel, who lives on the far West Side where she said many of the homeowners are families with children.

She and husband Wayne Kaddel said many people in their area already bypass Saint Joseph Medical Center for other hospitals because of concerns about changes and cutbacks over the years.

“For a lot of people, it has a stigma because it’s been sold so many times,” Kassel said. “People think there must be something wrong.”

Prime Healthcare is the fifth owner of the Joliet hospital since the 1990s.

The senators in their letter were critical of Prime Healthcare’s for-profit status suggested that the company bring back services cut at the three Illinois hospitals.

“We sincerely urge your health system to immediately reconsider these decisions, as the consequences of these reductions hold the potential to strip patients of critical and specialized care, impose additional barriers to accessing care, and exacerbate the existing health care needs in the communities these hospitals serve,” the letter said.

The May 20 letter was sent to Dr. Prem Reddy, chief executive officer of California-based Prime Healthcare. But Durbin’s office issued a news release the same day drawing attention to the letter.

In a statement in response to the letter from Durbin and Duckworth, Prime Healthcare said the eight Illinois hospitals it acquired “were facing severe financial distress, losing nearly $200 million annually — an unsustainable path that threatened access to care. Our mission is to preserve and strengthen these community hospitals, ensuring long-term access to safe, high-quality care."

Prime Healthcare said it closed the pediatric unit because of low patient volume with a daily census of less than one.

“Services with low volume often cannot ensure the highest standards of quality and do not serve community needs or the best interests of patients, especially services that care for less than one patient per day,” Prime said.