Oak Forest Hospital to close by month’s end

Oak Forest Hospital to close by month’s end

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Activists who lost their fight to preserve Oak Forest Hospital now say they’re going to focus on holding Cook County to its commitments.

A state board Tuesday approved the county’s plan to close the hospital and replace it with a regional outpatient center. Patients, unions and community activists managed to stave off the closure twice before. But at Tuesday’s meeting of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board, the county won the day.

Organizers say now the task is to make Cook County honor its pledge not to abandon south suburbanites.

“Let us take those concerns and be very vigilant,” said William McNary of Citizen Action Illinois, calling the vote expected but disappointing. “Don’t give up today. Because those health care needs are still going to continue beyond what they do here.”

McNary sits on an advisory board set up by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. He vowed to make sure the outpatient center offers the best possible care and to press neighboring hospitals to follow through on their promise to absorb Oak Forest patients. 

Many of the opponents sat through the four-hour meeting holding protest signs, and some even cried “genocide” as the vote was unfolding.

President Preckwinkle said she understands the anxiety, but condemns the rhetoric.

“To suggest the people on the independent governing board or the health care professionals are motivated by genocidal impulses is demeaning and extremely unfortunate,” Preckwinkle said after the vote.

The county made several concessions to opponents, including agreeing to run an immediate care facility on the site around the clock. Ultimately, new appointments to a state regulatory board gave Cook County the votes it lacked in two previous efforts to pass the plan.

County officials say they plan to discontinue hospital operations by the end of August and immediately begin phasing in the clinic services.