State panel hears testimony in Peru in support of OSF’s new plan

Testimony Wednesday from La Salle-Peru area residents and officials carried a different tune than a hearing in Ottawa earlier this month pertaining to OSF HealthCare’s plans to modify services in the region.

OSF submitted an application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board that will be decided on as soon as Aug. 8.

About 40 people showed their support Wednesday at the public hearing in Peru’s Municipal Building regarding the plan that will make Peru’s recently reopened hospital a hub for obstetrics, medical/surgical beds and intensive care unit beds in the region.

A total of 20 people signed up and testified in front of the board, and not one person objected to the plan.

At Ottawa’s hearing earlier this month, about 400 residents attended, 53 people signed up and provided testimony to the board, and a majority of them – many of them residents – were in opposition. City councils in Ottawa, Marseilles and Streator, as well as the La Salle County Board, also opposed the plan.

Wednesday’s testimony was provided primarily by city officials or current OSF workers.

A.J. Querciagrossa, CEO for OSF HealthCare’s Western region, opened the meeting by speaking about the $60 million investment OSF has made and will continue making in Peru.

He said some of the plans on the Peru campus are operational, but the hospital plans to increase the number of medical/surgical beds from 38 to 45, increase the number of intensive care unit beds from four to eight, maintain the 11 obstetrics beds and have a C-section room.

There are five operating rooms and one procedure room on campus. OSF plans to maintain the 10 emergency room bays, adding four stations to accommodate surges and volumes when needed, Querciagrossa said.

“All along, our goal has been to preserve and sustain access to high-quality health care, local health care,” he said, “not only for the residents in the Illinois Valley, but really for the entire region.”

On March 28, OSF HealthCare submitted to the HFSRB an application proposing a new hospital to be built across Route 6 from the current building. The proposal included moving some services, such as obstetrics and intensive care, to the newly purchased and reopened Peru hospital.

The Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa filed a request for a public hearing to voice its opposition to the planned reduction of services. The CHO earlier this month filed a complaint with the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission saying OSF HealthCare is a monopoly.

Its rebuttal included statistics about the current hospital, its successes and high rankings, its consistent profitability and how the proposed reduction in beds will make Ottawa the second smallest hospital with medical/surgical beds in the state.

Also mentioned were a potential over-reliance on police, fire and emergency medical services personnel for transfers to Peru. OSF officials have said they will use a contracted ambulance service to coordinate transfers with the goal of not overtaxing any one community’s service. A number of commenters said OSF had vowed in 2012, when the partnership with the city was initiated, that it would not change or reduce services.

Communities affected by the closure of St. Margaret’s in Peru in January 2023 and Spring Valley in June 2023, however, see OSF’s plan differently – they have services again after going months without even an emergency room.

In May, the La Salle City Council sent a letter of support for the plan stating that it was happy the city is gaining services.

For the most part, those who spoke reiterated that same tune: It was challenging without services in their community, and they were thankful to have them back.

“A little less than two years ago, we lost our local health care facility in Oglesby, and then shortly after that, we lost St. Margaret’s,” Oglesby Mayor Jason Curran said. “So, what that did is it took our average [wait] time from about seven minutes to over 25 minutes, and I know there are other communities near us that had a much bigger impact on them.”

Curran said he understands that there are other communities nearby that have some issues with the plan, but everyone needs to be focused on the bigger picture.

“We are a bunch of smaller communities that make up a much larger population,” he said. “So, anytime a community feels like they’re losing something, everybody wants to fight to try to keep that. I think we need to focus on the bigger picture and work together for a plan that’s going to support health care that’s not going to allow voids ever again.”

Illinois Valley Area Chamber of Commerce Director Bill Zens said OSF is the largest private employer in the region.

“As a chamber, we look to support our members, and health care is a major deal for our employers and for the community members in which we serve,” he said. “And OSF has stepped in to fill the hole that was left when we had two hospitals close.”

Peru Mayor Ken Kolowski thanked those in attendance, saying it showed the passion the community had for health care.

“[The] bottom line is, folks, [that] we need to listen, we need to trust OSF, and we need to pull the rope in the same direction for the entire region,” Kolowski said. “This is a regional thing. This is a national problem, and we’re thankful that you’re here.”

The moderator, HFSRB program reviewer George Roate, said public comment through mail and email will be accepted at the Springfield office through the end of business July 19, there will be a public hearing, and the board will have a minimum of two weeks to review it and a report summarizing the OSF application.

For information, call the board at 217-782-3516 or visit hfsrb.illinois.gov.

The board will have a public meeting Aug. 8 at the Bolingbrook Golf Club. It then will have input on a final report and recommendation to be released online that day.

“I ask to please refer to the website because these are tentative schedules and tentative locations,” Roate said.