A south suburban hospital will stay open longer than its owners had wanted after they failed to win approval from a state board on Tuesday.
MetroSouth Hospital in Blue Island already had told employees the facility would shut down Sept. 30, but it still needed the approval of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.
Then on Monday, People’s Choice Hospital, a hospital management company that was a potential buyer, filed a complaint against Quorum Health — the parent company of MetroSouth — claiming Quorum engaged in bad-faith negotiation tactics before abruptly ending talks to sell the hospital in August.
That lawsuit was cited Tuesday during the board’s monthly meeting at the Bolingbrook Golf Club, and a motion to defer the vote was made.
After about 30 minutes of discussion, the motion to defer action was approved 5-1. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 22 — weeks after MetroSouth’s desired closing date.
Amanda Anderson, spokesperson for Quorum, had called the lawsuit “frivolous and without merit” on Monday and said People’s Choice “repeatedly misrepresented the facts regarding their discussions related to MetroSouth Medical Center.”
MetroSouth is one of two hospitals in the Chicagoland area that have sought to terminate services this year. Westlake Hospital, 1225 W. Lake St. in Melrose Park, is the other; it has been closed since August.
The village of Melrose Park also sued to force the board to defer its vote on Westlake in April, but regulators approved the closure anyway. The unanimous approval sparked several court appeals and even forced Gov. J.B. Pritzker to oust two newly appointed board members days later.
Lawsuits against Westlake’s owners are still ongoing.
Manny Ramos is a corps member of Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of Chicago’s South Side and West Side.
