Mercyhealth wins appeal on building Crystal Lake hospital

The 2nd District Appellate Court of Illinois on Thursday upheld the
Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board's decision to grant Mercyhealth a certificate of need to build a hospital in Crystal Lake.

Javon Bea, president and CEO of Mercyhealth, said the hospital will break ground “as soon as the frost leaves the ground” in spring 2020. Starting in January, he said, they will put out bids to various contractors. The hospital and medical office building will be completed in 2021, according Mercyhealth.

Mercyhealth’s about $100 million plan includes a 13-bed hospital with private inpatient and intensive care beds, operating rooms and other services.

The new hospital on the corner of Route 31 and Three Oaks Road in Crystal Lake also will have a 24/7 emergency room.

Bea said it is important that Crystal Lake have a hospital with an emergency room as “time is of the essence” in emergency situations.

This is especially true for elderly or indigent patients who can’t go to other places in McHenry County to find an emergency room, Bea said.

The health system’s plan involves bringing together existing Mercyhealth Crystal Lake area primary and specialty care physician practices into one building.

Mercyhealth is a multiregional health system with seven hospitals and 85 primary and specialty care locations serving 55 northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin communities.

After Mercyhealth first announced its plan to build a microhospital in 2017, Centegra Health System asked a judge to toss out the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board's decision to grant a permit for Mercyhealth's hospital in Crystal Lake.

Centegra argued in its lawsuit that review board members failed to follow their own rules and abused their discretion when they approved the 13-bed hospital. Centegra claimed the board failed to follow its requirement that hospitals have at least 100 beds.

Last year, Mercyhealth’s plans were halted when a judge in McHenry County’s circuit court ruled the proposed 13-bed facility failed to meet state criteria.

Mercyhealth then appealed that ruling, and an appellate court ruled that Mercyhealth's application had met the four statutory requirements needed to issue the permit.

The court cited Mercyhealth’s record of providing health care to nearby communities, the economic feasibility of the project, the public interest and the support it was getting, and that “the project is consistent with the orderly and economic development of health care facilities” and in accord with the applicable standards and criteria in its decision.

“We’re thrilled that the appellate court upheld this. It’s been too long in coming,” Bea said.

Bea said that he doesn’t see any hurdles in the way of building the hospital now that the appellate court ruled in Mercyhealth’s favor.

A spokeswoman for Northwestern Medicine, which merged with Centegra last year, said the hospital had no comment.

“It’s over, in terms of appeals,” Bea said. “There shouldn’t have even been these hurdles.”

Bea said that because the hospital will have a medical clinic with 35 to 50 specialty positions, an emergency room, operating rooms and all major ancillary services, such as radiology, CAT scanning and MRIs, patients will be able to get all their care in one place.

“This has been a long and difficult process, but we kept at it and won this historic victory today,” Bea said.