Hospital staff NBC 5 spoke with Wednesday at Westlake Hospital say patients are being turned away, nurses laid off and medical equipment hauled off site, despite a court order mandating services remain in place through the end of the month. NBC 5’s Ash-har Quraishi reports.
The owner of a suburban Chicago hospital whose attempt to close the facility because of a lack of patients was halted by a court order has declared bankruptcy.
Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park filed Tuesday for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. Owner Pipeline Health listed Westlake assets of $1 million to $10 million and liabilities of $10 million to $50 million.
Pipeline Health requested a trustee be appointed to oversee the hospital, which has 225 beds. The company says it is losing nearly $3 million a month and no buyer has emerged for the facility that is about 80% empty.
CEO Jim Edwards says if the trustee chooses to close Westlake, current patients will be transferred to one of the nearby hospitals.
Melrose Park spokesman Gary Mack says the village remains resolved to keep the hospital open.
