The other owner of West Suburban Medical Center says he is working on getting the hospital back open after it was abruptly closed by his business partner last week.
Rathnaker Reddy, who owns the West Suburban property in Oak Park and is a minority partner in the company that owns the hospital, Resilience Healthcare, said he was "deeply concerned" the hospital stopped patient services last week.
"I want to be clear that I have not been involved in the hospital's clinical operations or day-to-day management," Reddy said in a statement. "However, I have grown increasingly concerned about the trajectory of hospital operations, which has led to a reduction in services and, now, the ... closure of this critical community asset."
Manoj Prasad, the CEO and majority owner of Resilience Healthcare, announced last week he was temporarily closing West Suburban's hospital, emergency room and outpatient clinics. Prasad blamed the a new electronic medical record system for failing to bill for the hospital’s work for the last year. That has forced to the hospital to operate on a fraction of its usual revenue, he said.
In response, Reddy said in the statement he reached out to Insight Hospital & Medical Center to see if they can "play a constructive role in stabilizing operations at West Suburban." That company purchased Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Bronzeville after it nearly closed in 2020.
Atif Bawahab, CEO of Insight, said in the same statement: “Insight is able to support preserving healthcare services at West Suburban Hospital, similar to the role we played in maintaining Mercy Hospital. Our mission is to step into complex situations and maintain continuity of care for the sake of the community.”
The closure of West Suburban comes seven months after Resilience Healthcare shuttered its other facility, Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Like Weiss, West Suburban serves a high percentage of patients who rely on Medicaid health insurance for people w
