A new front on the fight against health disparities opens in Springfield, Ill. next Tuesday, according to organizers trying to keep open Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital in East St. Louis.
Months of rallies, marches, signature campaigns and pleas to save the hospital now boil down to April 8, when the Illinois Healthcare Facilities Planning Commission makes its decision on whether to keep intact the hospital Certificate of Need in East St. Louis for its 30,000 residents.
The proposed change in the Certificate of Need will enable SIHF to discontinue medical, surgical, pediatric and intensive care medical services at Kenneth Hall Hospital in East St. Louis.
“Citizens need to be on the bus going to Springfield – anyone interested in eliminating disparities that exist between the black community and the white communities as it comes to health care,” said East St. Louis Mayor Alvin Parks Jr.
“This is about health care justice for the people to stand for what rightfully belongs to us in this region.”
The nonprofit hospital in East St. Louis is a lifeline for indigent patients.
Last year, hospital owner Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation requested to move the Certificate of Need (CON) from Kenneth Hall to Touchette Regional Hospital in Centreville.
The request was soon followed by a series of delays. Meanwhile, Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation (SIHF) has been systematically gutting the facility of everything it could outside the purview of the board. It removed testing equipment and other so-called “cost-reduction measures,” including the elimination of Level 2 trauma service.
The owner wants to use Kenneth Hall as an inpatient behavioral health facility with an emergency room. SIHF stated previously it would close the hospital if the CON request is not granted.
SIHF said Kenneth Hall has been losing millions of dollars for years.
About a thousand concerned citizens went to Springfield in January to protest the proposal. Organizers are planning the same show of support at next week’s meeting.
“We are meeting around-the-clock with our team captains, and basically everything is a ‘go,’” said Pastor Danny Hubbard of Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church in East St. Louis.
In anticipation of next week’s board meeting, about 400 citizens walked around Kenneth Hall Hospital over the weekend during a “Jericho Walk” and prayer to save the hospital.
Meanwhile, Pro Team Management, the group that made an offer to buy the hospital from SIHF several months ago, is moving ahead with its plans.
“I don’t anticipate them getting back with us unless they lose next week,” said Alvin Bush, a spokesperson for the group, said of SIHF.
Regardless of the outcome, Bush said the residents of East St. Louis will not be without a hospital for long. He said he and his partners are in negotiations for purchasing land to build a new hospital.
“The architect said it would take about 17 months to build a new hospital,” Bush said. “Right now, we are looking at 120 beds and a trauma center. The cost would be anywhere between $48 and $65 million.”
Members of Pro Team Management plan to attend the planning board meeting next week. Bush said organizers are again planning to take another 20 bus loads of Kenneth Hall Hospital supporters to Springfield for the decision.
The Illinois Healthcare Facilities Planning Board meets 9 a.m. April 8 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, Room B11, Lower Level, 1 Convention Center Plaza in Springfield, Ill.
For bus trip information, contact East St. Louis City Hall at 301 River Park Drive, East St. Louis, Illinois 62203, or call 618-482-6601. Buses will leave City Hall at 6 a.m.