OSF announces it will seek discontinuation of ICU, OB services at St. Elizabeth in Ottawa

OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa will seek to close its five-bed intensive care unit and 14-bed obstetrics services, as facilities at OSF St. Elizabeth in Peru prepare to take their place.

OSF will file a certificate of need application to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board for the removal of these services.

The discontinuation of services in Ottawa will not take effect until the process is complete, which is expected to take several months.

Despite pushback from the community, the ICU will be replaced by an eight-bed unit and OB services of 11 beds in Peru, both approved by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board last year. These services are not expected to open until August 2025, according to OSF.

Once the application is complete, it will be available for public review on the IHFSRB website.

“This is bigger than just Ottawa. While we’re not satisfied with their enhanced plan, we’ll continue pushing for a hospital capacity that meets the needs of eastern La Salle County.”

—  Ottawa Mayor Robb Hasty

Ottawa Mayor Robb Hasty said the city was aware of the planned changes and had been in ongoing discussions with OSF about the transition.

“We knew it was coming,” Hasty said. “The plan has always been that these services would be relocated to Peru as part of an overall strategy to enhance care in the region.”

While the move will result in the loss of critical services in Ottawa, Hasty acknowledged that it’s all part of the changing landscape of healthcare in rural areas.

“The loss of the ICU and OB services is significant for our community, but it seems to be the future of rural healthcare,” Hasty said.

Hasty’s comment about the loss of ICU and OB services being “the future of rural healthcare” highlights a growing trend in which smaller hospitals are shifting specialized services to larger centers because of limited resources and staff.

“This is bigger than just Ottawa. While we’re not satisfied with their enhanced plan, we’ll continue pushing for a hospital capacity that meets the needs of eastern La Salle County.”

OSF HealthCare has responded to the planned discontinuation of services in Ottawa with the following statement:

“We remain committed to providing high-quality care to the Ottawa community and ensuring access to necessary medical services,” OSF Media Relations Director Paul Arco said in a statement.

OSF’s announcement to discontinue ICU and obstetrics in Ottawa comes after it was granted a 12-month deferral for two projects affecting Ottawa’s health care system at a meeting with Illinois' Health Facilities and Services Review Board last week in Bolingbrook. Those two projects were establishing a new replacement hospital and discontinuing the current hospital once the new facility is completed.