Prime Healthcare not eliminating pulmonology service

KANKAKEE – New ownership of St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee has certainly made changes locally.

But one claim gaining momentum throughout the area is simply not true, Prime Healthcare officials said in an emailed statement this week to The Daily Journal.

The hospital is not suspending its pulmonary services. Prime Healthcare said it is adding to this field of care, as it recently brought the medical group Vituity on board to handle pulmonology services.

In its just-started transformation of St. Mary’s, Prime Healthcare said the hospital, under its previous Ascension ownership, had been losing upward of $15 million annually.

The company bought St. Mary’s, a nonprofit hospital with about 550 employees, for $33 million. It took over ownership March 1.

Prime has pledged a $250 million investment into its recently purchased Illinois hospitals through technology, infrastructure and system upgrades.

These upgrades, Prime Healthcare said, include plans for a new geri-psychiatry unit at its Kankakee facility. Prime said this unit will address the “unmet behavioral health needs of the community’s aging population.”

In a news release, the California-based health care company said: “St. Mary’s Kankakee ... continues its pulmonology services and has not suspended its pulmonary unit. Pulmonary and critical services remain fully covered at the hospital, and in fact, inpatient services have been expanded.”

Prime said its highest priority is maintaining quality, critical care access for all its patients.

There has been a change in the services, however.

Prime, which took over the ownership of eight former Ascension Healthcare hospitals in Illinois, including St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee and St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Joliet, said the previous pulmonary group providing these services in Kankakee was the Pulmonology Group.

A call to the Pulmonology Group by The Journal went unanswered.

St. Mary’s Kankakee has established services with a nationally recognized physician group, Vituity. Vituity’s corporate office is based in Chicago.

Vituity, Prime said, is a highly regarded pulmonary/critical care and emergency services provider for numerous health systems. Vituity is not dealing with St. Mary’s emergency department.

Pulmonology is a medical service focused on lung care.

Prime said Vituity’s eight physicians are providing full, 24/7 on-call coverage for pulmonary critical care at the hospital.

In addition, Vituity will provide coverage for the hospital’s outpatient pulmonary clinic, which previously had been staffed by the Pulmonology Group two days a week.

“These changes reflect an ongoing dedication to quality care and ensuring the long-term stability of St. Mary’s Kankakee, which was incurring losses of more than $15 million annually when it was acquired,” Prime Healthcare said.

Prime has faced local criticism since it took over at St. Mary’s.

One of the system’s first moves was the elimination of its labor and delivery services. Prime said St. Mary’s did not handle enough births to continue offering the service.

Prime also recently voluntarily suspended its Level II emergency department status due to the loss of its obstetrics service.

As a result, Riverside Healthcare is the area’s only Level II-designated ER.