As Vista Health System works to have its hospital’s Level II trauma center designation reinstated by the Illinois Department of Public Health (DPH), and assure authorities it can remain in the Medicare program, public officials and creditors await answers.
State, county and local officials, along with members of the public, sought answers and expressed concerns Monday at a news conference at the Lake County Health Department in Waukegan, and later at a Waukegan City Council meeting at City Hall.
Though frustration was evident from Waukegan Mayor Ann Taylor, Lake County Health Department Executive Director Mark Pfister and state Sen. Adriane Johnson, D-Buffalo Grove, they all share a goal for Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
“We do not want this hospital to leave this city,” Taylor said at the council meeting, referring to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan. “We will do everything in our power (for) that.”
“The county needs a hospital in Waukegan,” Pfister said at the news conference. “We are a federally qualified health center. Our patients go to Vista.”
“We need a hospital in Waukegan because if we don’t, this is what’s going to happen,” Johnson said at the meeting. “Waukegan will be the largest city in the state of Illinois without a hospital. I want us all to be part of the solution.”
While the hospital remains open, Faisal Gill, the chief legal officer for Los Angeles-based Vista owner American Healthcare Systems (AHS), is consolidating office locations for the Vista Physicians Group, closing some as a cost-cutting measure.
Vista learned its Level II trauma center designation was revoked Friday when the IDPH informed emergency medical systems in the area they could no longer send their ambulances to Vista.
Level II trauma centers can treat patients with serious injuries resulting from shootings, crashes and other similar traumatic incidents, with general surgeons always available.
Level I trauma centers — Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville is the only one in Lake County — deal with critically ill or wounded patients with life-threatening conditions.
Mike Claffey, a spokesperson for the IDPH, said in an email Sunday the designation was revoked, “due to its absence of essential services needed to maintain this designation, including lack of a blood bank, anesthesia, neurology, urology, or a full-time trauma coordinator.”
Gill said Monday afternoon Vista was in the process of providing the IDPH documentation to prove it had anesthetists, neurologists and urologists available during the IDPH inspection which led to the revocation.
Johnson said at the City Council meeting, the “IDPH is convinced Vista will be able to meet these requirements.”
Medicare payments were put in question when the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services acted on an inspection by the IDPH on Jan. 30 out of concern expressed in a letter Vista could not ensure, “appropriate providers are available to provide necessary services.”
Pfister said after the news conference, at this point there does not appear to be any danger Medicare will not make payments to Vista for patients insured under the system. Vista officials must provide necessary information.
Gill said Vista is in the process of sharing its institutional plan and budget with the IDPH and CMS. He is confident the agency will be satisfied.
When AHS bought Vista from Qurorum Health Corp. in July, Gill said there was a debt of approximately $15 million, and it was losing about $3 million a month. The losses are now closer to $1 million monthly, but Gill said it will take until this summer before a breakeven point is reached.
One of those cost-cutting measures includes consolidating physician offices around Lake County. Gill said the office in Grayslake was recently closed, while the locations in Gurnee, Waukegan and Lindenhurst are operating.
Trent Tobias, the owner of a commercial building in Grayslake that housed the Vista facility there, said at the City Council meeting he learned about the closure on Jan. 22 when he arrived at the property and found it abandoned.
“People are coming up to the building and can’t get in,” Tobias said. “No sign is saying what’s going on, and these patients are lost. There are some elderly folks trying to get service they can’t get from Vista right now. I’m concerned about the community and the patients Vista has.”
Tobias said there are approximately three years left on the lease, with roughly a $230,000 balance. No rent is being paid. Gill confirms there is outstanding rent.
“This is what cost-cutting looks like,” he said.
Concerns were first raised approximately two months ago when Lake Coroner Jennifer Banek, who is also a nurse anesthetist who has assisted surgeries at Vista, started raising concerns with different public officials and others.
