St. Margaret’s looks to keep emergency room in both Spring Valley, Peru

St. Margaret’s is putting on hold its application to discontinue emergency and inpatient services at St. Margaret’s Health in Spring Valley, in hopes of pursuing a new designation that would maintain emergency care at both its Spring Valley and Peru hospitals.

St. Margaret’s is pursuing a Rural Emergency Hospital designation for one of the hospitals, and intends on keeping the other hospital a full-service hospital. No determination has been made regarding which of the two hospitals would become a Rural Emergency Hospital, according to a letter from St. Margaret’s officials.

A Rural Emergency Hospital designation was established recently by the federal government to address the concern of hospitals closing nationally. The distinction allows for emergency services, observation care and other outpatient services.

“Conversion of one of the St. Margaret’s facilities to an REH would give St. Margaret’s the flexibility to continue its consolidation services and reduce duplication, while still providing emergency services at both locations,” said Tim Muntz, St. Margaret’s president and CEO and Terry Judd, chairperson of St. Margaret’s board of directors, in a letter to the public. “The REH designation also comes with significantly higher payments rates from Medicare.”

St. Margaret’s officials said they are working with state Rep. Lance Yednock (D-Ottawa) and Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) to facilitate the incorporation of the REH designation into the Illinois Hospital Licensing Act.

The Rural Emergency Hospital designation comes as an alternative proposal to plans initially shared in July for emergency and inpatient services to move to St. Margaret’s in Peru, and for outpatient and clinical services to continue at St. Margaret’s in Spring Valley.

That plan would have left Spring Valley with no emergency room. Under that plan, those patients would have to travel nearly 4 additional miles – or an estimated eight minutes, according to Google Maps – to Peru’s hospital. A Rural Emergency Hospital designation would provide emergency services in both communities, St. Margaret’s officials said.

St. Margaret’s officials said economic concerns in the healthcare industry have led to financial hardships for healthcare organizations and St. Margaret’s “has not been immune to this shift.”

“Significant changes are necessary,” Muntz and Judd wrote in their letter to the public.

St. Margaret’s in Spring Valley has 44 beds for inpatients and St. Margaret’s in Peru has 49.

Formerly Illinois Valley Community Hospital, Peru’s facility was purchased by St. Margaret’s and became part of its network at the start of 2021.