Joliet blasts Silver Cross relocation plan

Joliet blasts Silver Cross relocation plan

Silver Cross Hospital in Joliet wants to construct a $400 million hospital along I-355 in New Lenox, but the city of Joliet is doing its utmost to prevent the relocation.

Requests for interviews with the Silver Cross public relations firm and its communications department as well as the president’s office were denied, but an “FAQ” on the hospital’s Web site outlines most aspects of the plan.

It states that a replacement hospital is necessary to ensure the Silver Cross mission of providing the highest quality health care to all patients for the next 100 years. Constructing a new hospital at the current campus is not a viable option because it is not affordable, would take almost twice as long to build and would be highly disruptive to on-going services.

In addition, the plans call for an entire reworking of the hospital’s layout and design to improve all aspects of patient care and to accommodate cutting-edge medical technology, which cannot be achieved through an addition or renovation.

The city of Joliet is opposed to this relocation because it believes it would be harmful to residents and that there is no justifiable reason for the move.

“It’s taking a great community asset out of an older, densely populated community that’s been neighbors with the hospital for over 100 years,” said Jeff Plyman, city attorney for Joliet.

The city projects that Silver Cross’s exit would cost Joliet $2 million more per year to operate its EMS and police services by having to reroute the 4,000 ambulance runs to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center on the city’s west side.

“That’s a huge amount,” Plyman said. “That will increase transport times. That’s not good for patients, especially in critical situations.”

Silver Cross states that the replacement hospital would be central to where the majority of its patients reside and that the most critical time for life-threatening situations is the time that it takes an ambulance to get from the firehouse to the resident. Paramedics are trained to stabilize and render care in the field to save a life.

On May 21, the hospital brought its proposal to the Illinois Health Facilities Board for approval, but the city of Joliet was able to get the hearing rescheduled for July 1, stating it did not have sufficient time to analyze documents submitted at the last second by the hospital.

The underlying factor in this debate is the allegation by Joliet and Provena officials that Silver Cross’s impetus for a location change is based on the number of poor residents on the city’s east side who aere currently treated at the hospital. A relocation to New Lenox would create a more affluent clientele with better insurance as well as give the relocated facility a prime location along I-80.

“They’ll improve their payer mix by moving to a less urban area and maybe they’ll do better in the future,” said Plyman. “And that’s probably true from a business point of view but they won’t admit that.”

If Silver Cross were to state this as the main reason for moving, the state board would surely deny its application, he said. “So they’re coming up with other reasons.”

The east side of Joliet, as the older part of the city, also accommodates some of its major institutions that would no longer have access to nearby health care. Some of those institutions include the NASCAR race track, Silver Cross field, Joliet Central High School, nearly a half dozen grade schools, the Will County Courthouse, the state of Illinois building and the entire downtown area.

Joliet officials are also concerned about the future of the hospital’s current site if relocation were to take place. Officials make reference to the move of Copley Hospital in Aurora, under similar circumstances, in the mid-1990s.

“The hospital left the poorer part of Aurora to a more suburbanized, white area and the old hospital is still sitting there today, vacant,” said Plyman. “We expect something like that might happen here and we’re afraid of that.”

Silver Cross says on its Web site that it has engaged a real estate firm to provide several different scenarios for the current site—all of which it gave to the city for consideration. Each scenario included an urgent care facility that would remain on the east side of Joliet to continue to provide medical care for the surrounding neighborhood.

The hospital also points out that a replacement facility would create an influx of about 200-250 new health care jobs in addition to more than 630 construction and trade jobs. Furthermore, no jobs will be cut as a result of the replacement hospital.

Still, Joliet leaders question the necessity for and motives behind the move.

“They’re doing well financially and they’re delivering good health care right where they are,” Plyman said. “So what’s the justification?

“They may have the political and public relations muscle to get (the relocation) done through the regulatory process but I don’t think that they’re being transparent or honest or forthcoming with the community. They need to make their case on the merits and they haven’t done that.”

Jeremy Stoltz, Staff Writer

Posted on Wednesday, June 04, 2008 (Archive on Wednesday, June 11, 2008)
Posted by jstoltz Contributed by jstoltz

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