Chicago Sun Times : BY LISA DONOVAN AND MONIFA THOMAS Staff Reporters
A bill that would have paved the way for Cook County to quickly shutter Oak Forest Hospital and turn it in to a regional outpatient center has died, leaving the future of the hospital in doubt. After a state regulatory board denied the county’s application to close Oak Forest earlier this month, legislation was introduced to remove the county health system from state oversight — an end-run for the county to close the costly hospital operation Wednesday and begin offering outpatient services. Known as Senate Bill 40, the bill was amended by state Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago) to allow Cook County to close any of its three hospitals without state approval.
Though it passed the Senate, the measure failed to make it to the House floor for a vote on Tuesday, the deadline for the General Assembly’s spring session.
“I’m not planning to call it at this point,” Currie said Tuesday afternoon. “The president of the Cook County Board [Toni Preckwinkle] felt that we didn’t have a solid enough vote total, so we’re not going ahead with it.”
The bill faced stiff opposition from the House’s black caucus and community groups who felt the changes at Oak Forest would reduce access to health care for south suburban residents.
It’s unclear what, if any, back-up plan the county has to deal with the setback. A Preckwinkle spokeswoman did not return repeated phone messages and e-mails regarding the issue.
By closing the hospital, whose patient numbers are dwindling, the county would save $10 million in the last six months of the year or $20 million annually.
Adam Rosen, a spokesman for Service Employees Union International Local 73, which represents hundreds of workers in the county’s health and hospital system, said the union will meet with Preckwinkle “this summer to discuss keeping [Oak Forest] open.”
County officials will hold a press conference to discuss their plan for the hospital on Wednesday
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