Looking ahead, Ottawa hospital plan could come in January

Shaw Local staff members selected the stories that have made the biggest impact in 2024 and looked ahead at what’s next in 2025 for a year-in-review series.

OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa may have plans move forward in January for a new facility.

The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board is setting its meeting schedules for the upcoming term and soon may be prepared to consider the delayed decision regarding a proposed new hospital in Ottawa and the changes in services offered there, according to Paul Arco, media relations coordinator for OSF Healthcare.

In March, OSF HealthCare proposed building a new $120 million hospital across U.S. 6 from the existing OSF St. Elizabeth facility. A proposed reduction in the number of surgical beds and elimination of intensive care unit services from the hospital’s initial plan drew criticism from citizens and some local governments over the past year.

Colleen Burns, one of the leaders of the Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa, is hopeful for changes in that initial OSF plan.

The state board, having heard from Ottawa-area residents at a requested public meeting June 13 at Central Intermediate School, was scheduled to make its decision initially on Aug. 8 regarding the construction of the new $120 million hospital in Ottawa.

However, OSF asked for the decision to be pushed back a month and then taken off the review board’s agenda completely for more consideration.

Ottawa city and OSF officials have talked about the future of the hospital in private meetings. OSF was open to adding eight more medical/surgical beds – four of those being intermediate care beds – and a second procedure room to its initial plans, but Ottawa officials believe the modification still comes up short of meeting the local demand.

Over this time period, OSF had reopened the hospital in Peru, after the La Salle-Peru region went more than a year without an emergency room or hospital.

“It is my understanding that negotiations between the city and OSF over the past several months have been productive,” Burns said. “Based on all that we know about the profitability of St. Elizabeth in Ottawa and the current utilization of the facility, I am hopeful that OSF will come back with more than what was in their ‘enhanced plan.’ However, that all remains to be seen.

“I do believe that we should expect OSF to resubmit a plan to the (IHFSRB) sometime in January, so we will be on the watch for the official plans, and update the community once their application is made available on the board’s website.”

Burns encourages citizens to follow CHO’s Facebook page and the IHFSRB website, http://hfsrb.illinois.gov.

Ottawa Commissioner Tom Ganiere agreed that talks between the city and OSF have remained friendly.

“We are still talking with the hospital, yes,” Ganiere said. “There has been some progress, but things are going slowly … I think the attitudes are becoming a little more amicable as the talks go on and that’s led to a little more flexibility so far. We’ll see how things continue to progress.”

The Ottawa City Council, the CHO and other citizens organizations balked at the idea when they learned services now offered in Ottawa – including obstetrics and intensive care – would be transferred to OSF’s new hub of the Interstate 80 corridor in Peru. Residents and officials in the Ottawa area have been critical of OSF’s plan to build a facility with a 26-bed inpatient behavioral health unit, with what initially was 12 medical/surgical beds, in addition to a surgery suite, emergency services, diagnostic imaging and outpatient care services.

Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa have said that OSF’s new plans will leave the region short by 24 beds from the time of pre-closure of St. Margaret’s hospitals in Spring Valley and Peru.

In April, OSF reopened the former Illinois Valley Community Hospital in Peru. OSF’s plans for St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Peru were approved in August by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. The plan was unanimously approved to allow OSF to add seven surgical beds and four intensive care beds at a cost of about $5.59 million.

OSF expects to complete the changes in Peru by the end of 2025. OSF’s plan in Peru is to include 45 medical/surgical beds, eight intensive care unit rooms, 11 obstetric rooms to support a regional birthing center, surgery and procedure rooms, emergency services, diagnostic imaging and outpatient care services. OSF officials have said Peru is centrally located to better serve the western portion of the region.

The Ottawa City Council unanimously approved a resolution of opposition to OSF’s Ottawa plan May 21 and the cities of Marseilles and Streator, and the La Salle County Board have followed suit.

On June 10, the CHO filed a complaint with the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission citing OSF Healthcare as a monopoly.

There was a HFSRB public hearing at a packed Central School auditorium on June 13, when dozens of citizens expressed their displeasure with the plans in Ottawa.

The HFSRB, a nine-member body appointed by the governor, decides the final bed issuance by category per planning area, issues permits for construction and modification projects for healthcare facilities. It also is responsible for facility closures and discontinuation of a category of health care services.

That board was to consider the hospital’s certificate of need this summer, but OSF asked that the decision be delayed while talks between the hospital and city officials are conducted.