Ambulances move patients from MetroSouth Medical Center as corporate parent Quorum Health suspends emergency room services and won’t accept new patients; Sept. 20, 2019.

CONTACT: Scott.Vogel@seiuhcil.org

In response to this breaking news Anne Igoe, Vice-President of the Health Systems Division at SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana, issued the following statement:

“The announcement from John Walsh, the CEO of MetroSouth Medical Center, that the hospital is suspending operations and potentially shutting down the hospital is outrageous.  Quorum’s decision is coming just three days after the Illinois Health Facilities Review Board postponed its decision that the hospital must keep operating until its next Review Board hearing on October 22^nd.

“For this for-profit corporation to suspend its operations shows such brazen contempt for the Review Board’s authority and is an utter insult to patients, the Blue Island community, and to our workers.

“Quorum Health manufactured its own staffing crisis as a result of not extending physician contracts and making clear that workers had little to no future at the hospital.

“We’re calling on the Attorney General’s office and the Pritzker administration to use any and all legal action and intervene to keep MetroSouth open and continue to provide emergency room care and other vital services.

“The Illinois Hospital Association’s deafening silence throughout this crisis over MetroSouth shows their true agenda and values that they don’t care whatsoever about the damage to our communities and patient care when their own member organizations act with impunity.  We call on the IHA to speak out and condemn the irresponsible and cruel actions by Quorum Health and demand that they are held accountable.”

–END–