Waukegan residents and area healthcare professionals must be wondering when did it all go wrong at Vista Medical Center East? When did a once-respected hospital become a shell of its former self?
Perhaps it was some years ago when the former Victory Memorial Hospital lost local control and was purchased by a string of out-of-state ventures, three in the last five years. Or when state health licensing officials denied Victory’s petition to build a second hospital in western Lake County.
Regardless, it doesn’t look good for those who depend on emergency treatment in their backyards.
Life-and-death circumstances are in play here as state officials yanked the hospital’s trauma center designation last week because it allegedly lacks essential services to keep an emergency room staffed. Poorer and under-served residents in the northeastern part of the county who might seek walk-in ER care will be impacted the most.
Once, Waukegan had two well-run hospitals, Victory and St. Therese at Washington Street and Keller Avenue. Victory has since morphed into Vista, while the mainly unused St. Therese has since become part of the Vista network and designated Vista Medical Center West.
Victory dates back to 1891 when residents, mostly settled along the Lake Michigan shoreline, wanted a local hospital. The Lake County Hospital Association was organized, and a six-bed facility at North Avenue and Franklin Street in Waukegan was opened. A nursing school was added in the early 20th century.
After World War I, a larger hospital was built as a tribute to Lake County veterans who fought in the “Great War.” The new hospital opened in 1923 at its current location, and has been added to during decades of serving patients despite recent new ownerships.
Over the years, Victory Memorial expanded its facilities on Waukegan’s North Side, enlarged its services, including the first blood bank in Lake County (the Blumberg Blood Bank), senior citizen day care and chemical dependency programs. The rehab program, once on the top floor of the building, was funded partly by the once annual Festival of Trees holiday fundraiser and Taste of Victory galas in the fall featuring area chefs.
Victory and Vista officials reached out to west Lake County fire departments to provide trauma aid, and several times sought to build a hospital in west Lake County for quicker emergency service. Those plans were stymied by state officials, who said in the late 1990s and early 2000s that there was no need for such a facility, although paramedics from the area argued in favor.
St. Therese had the first state-designated trauma center in the county, complete with a helicopter landing pad, as Illinois in the early 1970s was one of the first states to adopt the triage and level-of-care emergency room systems common in the military. Several poor management decisions, including the Chicago Archdiocese quashing a sale to Humana Health, led to the West Side medical center’s quiet slide into near-abandonment.
Waukegan, North Chicago, Beach Park, Zion and Winthrop Harbor residents will be denied close-in emergency care following the Illinois Department of Public Health’s revocation of Vista’s Level II trauma center license. That came about because apparently the medical center does not have a full-time trauma coordinator, lacks a blood bank, along with medical specialists on duty in anesthesia, neurology and urology, among others.
A spokesman for Los Angeles-based Vista East owner American Healthcare Systems, which bought the hospital seven months ago, denied the state’s allegation in a front-page News-Sun story the other day by Steve Sadin. The spokesman also said Vista officials are appealing the revocation, which doesn’t affect other services at the hospital.
Yet, there were recent indications all was not right at Vista. Doctors and other health-care providers complained of slow or no payment for services; the facility was losing staff.
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek, who doubled as an anesthesia nurse at Vista East, complained to state health officials about what she saw as shortcomings at the hospital. Vista officials maintain a “misunderstanding” led to the state action.
Until that is sorted out, more pressure will be on other county emergency rooms — Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Aurora Health in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., Northwestern/Lake Forest Hospital and Endeavor Highland Park Hospital — to pick up the slack. They already are crowded with patients most days.
That also doesn’t bode well for emergency times of transported patients from shoreline communities. Part of the equation includes the return trip to quarters following an emergency run, which leaves the city and other jurisdictions with at least one emergency vehicle out of action.
Waukegan Fire Department paramedics told Sadin ambulance ride times will quadruple to Condell, the county’s main trauma center. Waukegan now must be the only city of some 100,000 people in Illinois to be without life-saving emergency room services.
City and county officials are reeling from the state action, which appears to have caught them off-guard even though signs were just below the surface. There are financial fears for the future of the medical center.
When American Health Systems acquired the facility, it allegedly was losing money and had debt of about $15 million. Elected officials want to ensure Vista remains a key part of Lake County’s healthcare network.
A solution to Vista’s trouble is required sooner than later for those seeking ER care closer, not farther away from home. Vista needs to get off life support with a cash and management infusion.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
sellenews@gmail.com
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