A Revised Mercy Hospital Plan Going Before State Board Friday Morning

The Mercy Crystal Lake Hospital and Medical Center will be before Illinois Health Facilities Planning and Review Board Friday morning beginning at 10:00 a.m. The location is the Crystal Lake City Council Chambers, 100 West Woodstock Street, Crystal Lake.

The presentation by Mercy is a revision of a previous presentation for a hospital to be located on the southeast corner of Route 31 and Three Oaks Road, Crystal Lake. That proposal for a 128 bed facility carried along with a clinic and other related services carried an estimated cost of $356,173. The State Review Board rejected that plan as well as one for Centegra Hospital for a facility in Huntley.

The Mercy plan has been reduced to 70 beds as well as other offerings connected with health care and the cost is reduced to 200,525,891.

Consideration by the State Board has been tentatively scheduled for the November 22, 2011 State Board Meeting. Any person wanting to submit written comments on this project must submit these comments by 9:00 a.m., November 2, 2011.

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital Supports State Hospital Board Decision

Although the two proposed hospital plans before the State Health Facilities and Services Review Board today were turned down, this is not necessarily the end of the matter. Both proposals could be before the State Board later this year.

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital welcomed the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board’s votes today to give an “intent to deny” to both Certificate of Need (CON) applications from Centegra Health System and Mercy Health System to build additional hospitals in McHenry County.

“We thank the Review Board for its intention to deny these projects, and believe this supports our contention that no new hospitals are needed in McHenry County,” said Karen Lambert, president of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital.

Centegra asked for approval to build a $233 million, 128-bed hospital in Huntley on its campus at Reed and Haligus roads. Mercy’s application was for a $200 million, 128-bed hospital in Crystal Lake on property it owns at Route 31 and Three Oaks Road. The Review Board’s vote took place at its meeting in Joliet.

“We know the board will consider these projects again, and are confident that members will see that residents of northern Kane County and southeastern McHenry County are already well served by Good Shepherd and several other regional medical centers,” Lambert said.

These projects could be back on the agenda as early as August 16, 2011, or they could be added to the agenda for the meeting October 4, 2011.

Illinois Health Facilities And Services Review Board Requested To Defer Approval For Mercy and Centegra

Three Chicago-area hospitals say the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board (IHFSRB) should defer approval of applications to implement new hospitals until the state establishes a Center for Comprehensive Health Planning created by recent legislation.

Legal counsel filed a letter on behalf of Sherman Hospital, Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital and St. Alexius Medical Center today with IHFSRB Chairman Dale Galassie, pointing out that the state has not yet followed the rewrite of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Act. The General Assembly undertook a substantial rewrite of that Act in 2009 in the wake of two major corruption cases involving a previous planning board.

The IHFSRB will consider applications for new hospital Certificates of Need from three health systems during its June 28 meeting. Applications include two in McHenry County – one from Centegra Health System that would be built in Huntley, Ill., and another from Mercy Health System that would be located in Crystal Lake, Ill.

Sherman, Good Shepherd and St. Alexius, which have opposed the Centegra and Mercy projects, are among several regional medical centers that already serve southeastern McHenry County. The hospitals believe the law calls for a comprehensive state plan that would provide expert, independent analysis to the Review Board to assist in determining whether new hospitals are really needed. The plan would measure, for example, projected population growth and the regional implications of building a new hospital.

When the legislation was approved by the Illinois General Assembly in 2009, legislators said the comprehensive planning function was essential to sound, cost-effective health care planning in Illinois. In fact, the Legislature rewrote the opening “Purpose” section of the Planning Act to state that the Review Board should apply the findings from the Comprehensive Health Plan to the Board’s standards and review criterion and that the Review Board should base its decisions on findings from the Plan.

Joe Ourth, a partner at the law firm of Arnstein & Lehr LLP, wrote the letter on behalf of the three hospitals. He said, “The hospitals believe that a comprehensive plan would provide much-needed assistance to the Review Board by analyzing the complex information related to the decision to establish new hospitals. Ultimately, in-depth planning would reduce the unnecessarily higher health care expenses that could result from new hospitals.”

McHenry County Board of Health Decided Against Adopting Hospital Motions

McHenry County Board of Health decided not to take a position on either of the two proposed new hospitals being considered for location in McHenry County. Centegra Health System is planning to build a 128-bed acute care facility on the east side of Haligus Road between Algonquin Road and Reed Road at Huntley.  Mercy Crystal Lake Hospital and Medical Center is proposing to build 128-bed facility on the southeast corner of Route 31 and Three Oaks Road, Crystal Lake. Both hospital groups have facilities located in McHenry County.

The board discussed the dilemma of whether they should adopt a resolution of support for either of the two facilities or both. After discussing concerns regarding the situation and whether anyone who works for one of the facilities should be voting on a motion of support or not, the matter was resolved by removing the item from the agenda for consideration. That solved the dilemma without have to vote one way or the other.

A Public Hearing has been held for each of the two proposals which were well attended by the public with comments recorded for consideration by the group that will have to make the decision whether both hospitals are to be licensed or just one and which one or none. Consideration regarding the construction of the hospitals is scheduled to be before the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board on May 10. That Board could decide in favor of both proposals, for one or the other, or against both.