Illinois State Health Officials have voted to approve the merger between the East St. Louis, Illinois hospital, and Touchette Regional Hospital in nearby Centreville, Illinois.
According to East St. Louis city officials the decision will cost more than 100 jobs.
Before noon today (Tuesday) , with hundreds of East St. Louis residents who made the trek to Springfield, Illinois’ State Health Facilities Planning Board decided to approve a request by the owners of Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital to merge Kenneth Hall Hospital with Touchette Regional Hospital.
The hospital’s owners made this request in large part because of financial difficulties the hospital has been experiencing in recent years.
In an effort to address public safety and health concerns, held by hundreds of East St. Louis residents who took coach buses up to Springfield for Tuesday’s decision, it its ruling the state board did require that Kenneth Hall continue to maintain a, “comprehensive emergency room service level.”
They say that insures that the hospital emergency room in East St. Louis would still have to be kept in tact, and would still have to be open to see, for instance, cold and flu patients, not just trauma patients.
State board members say the hospital’s owners would have to go back before the board if they wanted permission to scale back that comprehensive emergency room service level.