Closing of Chicago Heights hospital stirs protests

A Catholic health system’s proposal to close a south suburban hospital that has served the community for more than a century has residents and local leaders trying to save emergency medical services.

Arnie Kimmel, Franciscan St. James Health’s CEO, says it’s too expensive to continue to operate hospitals in Chicago Heights and Olympia Fields, which are about 5 miles apart, because they have too many beds and not enough patients. He plans to shutter the Chicago Heights hospital, parts of which are more than 100 years old, and expand and renovate the 35-year-old Olympia Fields campus to accommodate patients from Chicago Heights and other nearby towns.

Afraid of losing some emergency services, residents and local leaders have spent months discussing and protesting the planned closing, culminating in a hearing [2/9/16] before a state health planning board, which is scheduled to vote on the proposal next month…Please click here to read Ameet Sachdev’s story in the Tribune.