Weiss Memorial Hospital evacuated its entire inpatient unit this week after failing to fix the hospital’s air conditioning system as temperatures inside the building rose to 90 degrees.
Hospital leaders blamed the problem, which forced the hospital to transfer or discharge more than 40 patients, on an aging AC system that had not been maintained by previous owners. The AC may not be fixed for two more weeks, they said.
Staff at the 239-bed acute care hospital in Uptown first realized the AC had an issue two weeks ago. They discovered that three out of the four AC units were not working when they began transitioning from heating the hospital to cooling it, Dr. Manoj Prasad, the hospital’s owner and CEO, told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Turning on the AC system had become a tense annual ritual, as staff hoped the system in the 73-year-old building would continue working.
“We crossed our fingers,” Prasad said.
On Saturday, ahead of this week’s high temperatures, hospital leaders planned for how to care for their patients.
On Monday, they stopped admitting new patients and canceled surgeries. By Tuesday evening, the hospital’s 45 patients were either discharged, moved to a nearby hospital or transferred to Resilience Healthcare’s other hospital, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, said Andrea Saviozzi, the hospital’s executive director of nursing and clinical services.
Meanwhile, temperatures inside hovered between 87 and 90 degrees, Saviozzi said.
Technicians are working on repairing the systems. One unit has been fixed, but the two remaining require parts that needed to be ordered, Prasad said. While he couldn’t share a specific date, he said he hopes the hospital will be back open in about two weeks.
“Patient safety and patient comfort definitely comes first for us,” Prasad said.
Of the 45 patients, 22 were moved to West Suburban Medical Center, which got a brand-new AC system last year. Weiss’ staff was also moved to the 239-bed hospital, currently staffed to manage 110 patients, Prasad said.
The outpatient areas and emergency room at Weiss are not impacted and remain open. The emergency room is redirecting ambulances to other hospitals but is open to walk-in patients, a hospital spokesperson said. If they need to be admitted, they will be stabilized and transferred to another hospital.
In 2022, Resilience Healthcare acquired Weiss Memorial, West Suburban Medical Center and West Suburban’s River Forest medical campus from Pipeline Health, which had declared bankruptcy.
Prasad said the hospitals have been struggling financially, but managed to break even last year. Though, he said it would be tough to foot a $250,000 AC repair bill and lose two weeks of revenue.
