June 16, 2024
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Ottawa chamber opposes OSF plan

Group says reduced service will have negative effect on Ottawa residents

By Charlie Ellerbrock
OSF HealthCare plans to build a new inpatient hospital in Ottawa, the hospital chain announced Wednesday in a news release. The new hospital will be built across the street, south of East Norris Drive (U.S. 6), on a vacant 31-acre plot of OSF-owned land, OSF said in its release. The current OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center was built in the early 1970s and is at the end of its useful life with infrastructure challenges necessitating this decision, the hospital said.

The Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce joined the Ottawa City Council on Thursday in voicing its opposition to OSF HealthCare’s plan for reducing and eliminating certain services it has traditionally offered at OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa. (Scott Anderson)

The Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce joined the Ottawa City Council on Thursday in voicing its opposition to OSF HealthCare’s plan for reducing and eliminating certain services that it has traditionally offered at OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center in Ottawa.

The chamber’s board of directors adopted the resolution Wednesday by unanimous vote, with two abstentions, less than 24 hours after the city approved its own resolution of opposition.

In a news release sent Thursday, the chamber said it “would normally celebrate and support the construction of a new hospital in Ottawa, [but] there has been tremendous concern about the diminished services in Ottawa as proposed by the OSF plan.”

OSF Healthcare on March 7 announced its intention to build a new $180 million hospital. However, in that same announcement, it indicated that it would be making the newly reopened Peru hospital its hub in the Interstate 80 corridor and that some of the services in Ottawa would be sent there.

Cited as the chamber’s reasons for opposition were the reduction of medical and surgical beds from its current 23 to 12, the loss of services such as inpatient intensive care and the loss of inpatient obstetric care and birthing rooms. The chamber also pointed out the resulting strain it would put on emergency medical and transport services with longer transportation times for Ottawa residents and the Ottawa Fire Department.

Those moves, the resolution said, would “negatively affect the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Ottawa.”

“The Ottawa Area Chamber of Commerce strongly urges OSF HealthCare to reconsider their proposed plan and respectfully requests that OSF provides the Ottawa area with the full-service hospital it deserves,” according to the statement.

The resolution will be placed on file with the city of Ottawa and other governmental agencies.

Both resolutions will be passed along to the Illinois Health Facilities and Review Board when it takes public comment June 13 at Central School, 711 E. McKinley Road, in Ottawa.

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