A Cook County judge on Friday told lawyers for the village of Melrose Park that their legal efforts might lead to fines but not what they ultimately want — to stop the closure of Westlake Hospital.
Melrose Park officials vowed to continue to try to keep the hospital’s doors open.
“Nothing that happened in Cook County today has any bearing on Pipeline’s action to apparently close Westlake Hospital as of 5 pm today. Pipeline has been and continues to be under court order to keep Westlake open,” Melrose Park Mayor Ron Serpico said in a written statement. “We will continue to fight to keep Westlake open — or if necessary to reopen it — pending resolution of our challenges to their fraudulent and frivolous bankruptcy filing and the litigation we have filed against them in Illinois.”
Lawyers for Melrose Park had asked Cook County Judge Franklin Valderrama to hold the company that oversees Westlake in contempt of court for trying to close the hospital, an apparent violation of a judge’s order in May.
But Valderrama said Friday that siding with Melrose Park would only lead to fines against that company, SRC Hospital Investments, not a halt to the closure. The judge postponed until next week a ruling on whether SRC is in contempt of court. He also suggested the issue might be better handled in bankruptcy court, something the village attorneys disputed.
“In effect, you are saying, never mind the bankruptcy, you must stay open,” Valderrama said. “I’m having a hard time with that.”
Melrose Park lawyers have claimed Westlake began transferring patients on Wednesday and told staff of plans to close its doors by the end of the week.
Westlake filed bankruptcy on Tuesday. The hospital has been losing about $3 million a month and operating with 80% of its beds empty, the hospital said.
