West Suburban Medical Center might have its power shut off next month because the owner is behind on electric bill payments.
ComEd posted a notice on the Oak Park hospital’s doors earlier this month, warning that the power will be turned off on July 8 if the facility doesn’t catch up on payments. The issue came up Monday during a hearing in Cook County court in the ongoing legal battle between its two owners.
The beleaguered hospital was recently shut down by the village of Oak Park because all 28 of its elevators have stopped working. The village’s fire department was called to West Suburban on June 11 because patients coming in for appointments couldn’t reach the clinics on the top floors of the hospital or return to the ground floor, according to a village spokesperson.
Oak Park is requiring the hospital to repair at least two elevators before it can reopen. That has yet to happen, the spokesperson said.
Representatives for the hospital’s owners, Manoj Prasad and Rathnakar Reddy Patlola, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A ComEd spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prasad is the CEO and majority owner of Resilience Healthcare, which owns West Suburban, West Suburban’s River Forest medical campus and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Patlola is the minority owner of Resilience and the landlord for all three hospital properties.
Citing issues with the hospital’s billing system, Prasad abruptly closed West Suburban in March. He reopened some outpatient clinics in April. PCC Community Wellness Center operates its own clinics at West Suburban and had remained open until the elevators failed.
The decision to close the hospital triggered a legal battle between Prasad and Patlola.
Patlola tried to oust Prasad and evict Resilience from both hospitals and the associated medical office buildings. Prasad then filed suit against Patlola to stop the eviction. In response, Patlola countersued, asking a judge to appoint a receiver to take control of West Suburban’s operations, allowing it to reopen.
Three weeks ago, Judge Patrick Stanton ruled against Patlola’s emergency request for a receiver, saying his lawyers did not meet the burden of proof.
During Monday’s hearing, Stanton once again stressed the need for a plan to reopen the hospital. Lawyers for Prasad and Patlola are scheduled to return to court Thursday morning to continue hashing out a settlement plan to do just that.