Mercy Hospital on the South Side may remain open if a sale to Insight Chicago is approved. | Adobe Stock
Mercy Hospital on the South Side may remain open if a sale to Insight Chicago is approved. | Adobe Stock
Illinois’ historic Mercy Hospital may now be on course to remaining open, even after recently filing for bankruptcy.
The hospital initially set May 31 as its last day but is now under a non-binding agreement to be sold, a WBEZChicago reported in March.
Hospital CEO Carol Schneider wrote a memo to employees saying that Trinity Health has plans to sell the facility to Insight Chicago, which is leaning toward operating it as a community hospital, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“Insight Chicago will operate Mercy Hospital as a community hospital and will maintain ICU, Medical/Surgical, OB (non-high risk), Acute Mental Illness and Comprehensive Physical Rehabilitation categories of services,” Schneider wrote, WBEZChicago reported. “Insight Chicago will continue to operate Mercy Hospital’s ED as a basic Emergency Department.”
Earlier plans for Mercy to merge with three other financially struggling South Side hospitals collapsed mainly because of a lack of state funding, the Sun-Times reported.
“We plan on a hospital that meets the needs of this great community while leveraging regional expertise of our health system,” Jawad Shah, president and CEO of Insight, said in an Insight news release, the Chicago Tribune reported. “We are committed to a thoughtful community engagement process to ensure access to care for Chicago’s diverse populations while achieving financial solvency.”
If the Insight Chicago deal is finalized before the May 31 date, Mercy officials said they are prepared to aid the new owners in transitioning services.
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