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The state hospital board meets Monday in Bolingbrook, but recent cuts at local hospital are not on its agenda.
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board meets at 9 a.m. Monday at the Bolingbrook Golf Club.
The location of the meeting gives local residents a convenient opportunity to comment on Prime Healthcare’s recent decisions to stop pediatric services at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet and obstetrics services at St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee.
Neither action was on the agenda as of Thursday for the board’s meeting.
The agenda does, however, include a public participation period early in the meeting at which time people can comment on hospital issues, board Administrator John Kniery said in an email to The Herald-News.
Kniery said Prime Healthcare has notified the board of the suspension of services as the Joliet and Kankakee hospitals.
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But Prime has 12 months to apply for board approval of permanent elimination of those services, which would put the matters on the board’s agenda.
Kniery said Prime Healthcare “has provided the necessary notifications to temporarily suspend” the services at both hospitals but has not yet applied for approval to permanently end them.
Prime in response to The Herald-News issued a statement indicating that a decision has not yet been made to permanently end the services at the two hospitals.
“If or when full discontinuation is contemplated, applications to do so will be considered by the HFSRB (Health Facilities Services Review Board) in full compliance with all regulatory processes,” the statement said.
The Illinois Nurses Association, the union that represents nurses at Saint Joseph Medical Center, has encouraged Joliet-area residents to go to the state board’s meeting in Bolingbrook to comment on the suspension of pediatric services.
An INA official did not return calls this week to comment on whether the union still intends to speak about the cuts at the Monday meeting in Bolingbrook.
Prime has indicated the cuts are needed to reach financial stability at the hospitals.
According to Prime, Saint Joseph Medical Center has sustained annual losses of $90 million and St. Mary’s Hospital has lost $15 million in the past year.