Ottawa mayor addresses next steps in OSF hospital plans, talks about recent activity

Ottawa Mayor Robb Hasty issued a lengthy statement Saturday in response to the latest news surrounding OSF’s plans for health care in Ottawa, including what he sees are the next steps.

OSF recently was granted a 12-month deferral by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board to build a new hospital in Ottawa and discontinue the old one.

Additionally, OSF announced its plans to discontinue obstetrics and intensive care unit services at the current St. Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa by the end of August. A vote on the proposal is scheduled for the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board’s meeting on Aug. 12. Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa has requested a public hearing to be held at Central Intermediate School prior to the vote.

[ Mayor Robb Hasty's full statement ]

As part of the 12-month extension, Hasty said the Health Board is requiring OSF to have monthly meetings with the city of Ottawa and selected members of the community. OSF must file a report to the state health board summarizing these meetings, Hasty said.

“The commissioners and I also plan to write a summary,” Hasty said. “It is my intention to not only file it with the Health Board but also share it with the public. We have selected community representatives from the Chamber of Commerce and two members of the CHO organization.”

Hasty said the first meeting is scheduled in two weeks and he plans to offer updates on the more recent news regarding the multiple certificate of need applications filed by OSF.

After OSF’s initial plans to build a new hospital with fewer beds and no ICU were met with opposition, OSF asked the state board for an extension on its applications to extend talks with the city. OSF was encouraged by the health board to meet with the city on an ongoing basis to find a resolution.

OSF proposed an enhanced plan that would increase the medical/surgical beds from 12 to 20 with four being used as intermediate care beds. The city rejected the proposal because it believed Ottawa still was underserved with the lack of ICU care and beds, Hasty said.

“From late summer 2024 to December 2024, we had approximately five meetings that included OSF, members of OSF’s advisory board, members of the Chamber of Commerce, and one city selected member of Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa,” Hasty said. “OSF was asked questions about future operations but gave little information during the meetings. Instead providing written statements at later dates that failed to address the city’s most pressing concerns.”

Hasty said the city believed it was not getting sufficient answers by October during these meetings and requested OSF extend the timeline for reducing services in Ottawa beyond the fully operational date for Peru in August 2025.

“This way both OSF and the people of Ottawa could see if OSF’s plan of shifting care to Peru would work prior to reducing care at Ottawa,” Hasty said. “We were confident then, as we are today, that time and data would show that the plan they were developing would be insufficient, and more services would be needed for eastern La Salle County. At that time they did not agree to our request.”

Hasty said the Ottawa team offered a counter proposal in December for 28 beds (of which four could be used for intermediate care), eICU support of the intermediate beds, 24-hour in-house physician hospital services, 21 behavior health beds (reduction of their proposal by five), three operating rooms, two procedure rooms – conceding centralization of obstetrical, newborn, ICU and after-hours surgical services to Peru.

“Our proposal was written using OSF’s own data and assisted by a former chief medical officer of OSF,” Hasty said. “This proposal was rejected and OSF stated that they intended to pull their CON application for Ottawa all together. Since OSF already had permission to move services to Peru last summer when their previous CON was granted, this would essentially free OSF to strip Ottawa and relocate services however they saw fit, and Ottawa could potentially be left with even less than previously offered.”

Hasty said the city met with OSF in late January to prevent OSF from stripping services to Ottawa and were told that OSF was willing to ask for an additional 12-month extension on its application as the city had originally requested in October. OSF wanted the city to pass a resolution in support of its request for another extension with the health board, the city declined, and instead both sides agreed for the city to write a letter agreeing to the extension.

“I did not attend the Health Board hearing, and I know that many people are upset that I didn’t,” Hasty said. “The reason at the time was because we knew that OSF was moving forward with this request to the Health Board on our recommendation from last October. I did not want my presence to be misconstrued as support for OSF and their plan for our region. I still do not believe that their plan is sufficient.

“In hindsight, I understand that my absence might be seen as a betrayal to those striving to preserve our hospital’s services. That was not my intent and I’m sorry that I’ve caused such anger and disappointment in the community. There is a team from CHO that myself, members of the City Council, and our police and fire chiefs meet with regularly. That team is working very hard to provide the public with information. They deserve all our gratitude.”