The Loss of Mercy Hospital Is a Tragedy in Every Sense of the Word

The word “tragedy” is defined as “an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress.” The loss of life from coronavirus is tragic. The closing of Mercy Hospital may be even more so.

With no financial commitment from the Illinois General Assembly, four hospitals – Advocate Trinity Hospital, Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, South Shore Hospital and St. Bernard Hospital – have ended their merger discussions. Their plan was to build a new facility worth $1.1 billion, which included expanded services, replacement of outdated facilities, and new community health centers. The merger discussions began in an effort to prevent any of the four hospitals from closing. In the merger plan, the hospitals asked for $520 million in aid from the state of Illinois over five years in an effort to offset added losses as the new health system was being built.

Hospital executives from the four facilities sent a letter to the Director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services:

We have determined that we see no path forward for our project that would transform health care on the South Side and help address disparities in health for the patients we serve. The recent COVID-19 outbreak should make clear to all why this legislative development is so misguided. This pandemic has disproportionately affected our city’s African Americans. We have grave concerns about this development and we believe this action will force hospital closures, cause further service cuts and push access to care even further out of reach for the families we serve.

Prior to sending the letter, executives from all four hospitals met with more than 700 residents, leaders, community activists, and other interested parties regarding the potential merger to discuss the proposal and what would be needed to move forward with improved care and services.

Additional funding won’t help the Southside

Additional funding is on the way for hospitals throughout Illinois, but it still isn’t enough to help. Modern Healthcare reports that “Lawmakers were expected to approve a pool of $500 million to help facilities across the state transform in an evolving industry, and the South Side hospitals were banking on a significant piece of the pot.”

It didn’t happen the way they hoped. Three of the hospitals are holding out, but Mercy Hospital will close.

Why everyday citizens should care about a failed hospital merger

At first glance, it’s hard to care about a hospital closing; after all, three out of the four facilities will remain open, and Provident Hospital is only about 3 miles away from Mercy’s location. What’s the big deal?

First, though not foremost, this is a historic loss. Mercy was the first teaching hospital in Chicago. It’s been here, serving the community, since 1852.

Second, and much more important, is that Mercy serves a largely African American community. ABC 7 reports that “Community activists say the shuttering of the hospital will create a healthcare desert for African Americans on the South Side who already struggle with disparities in medical care.”

Third, and most important, we are in the middle of a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting African Americans. Closing a hospital because of lack of funding in the third-largest city in the country at a time when the American public is begging for greater access to healthcare is negligent at best. That the only hospital closing happens to serve the Black community speaks to the systemic racism we see in healthcare. Trinity, which owns Mercy, has been trying to sell it for 18 months, but no one wanted to save this historic hospital. It’s not like it lacked patients; “Mercy has one of the busiest emergency departments in the city and is one of few places on the South Side to deliver a baby,” WBEZ reports.

Further, as Mercy closes, so will its clinics. It hopes to open an outpatient facility that “would focus on preventive and urgent care to avoid pricey hospital states and emergency room visits at other hospitals,” per WBEZ.

And there’s the rub: it all comes down to the cost ratio of its community, which skews older, sicker, poorer, and non-White. As well-to-do community members flee to shiny new hospitals, only Mercy Hospital remained to care for patients who could not go elsewhere. So sometime between February and May of 2021, it will be gone, leading to delays in treatment and loss of quality care for the Southside.

If that’s not a tragedy, we don’t know what is.

Access to healthcare should be a human right, especially during a global pandemic. At Gainsberg Injury and Accident Lawyers, we never lose sight of that. To speak with a member of our team, please call 312-600-9585 or complete our contact form to schedule a consultation today.