Silver Cross in the News
Silver Cross plan deserves green light THE ISSUE: Silver Cross Hospital will ask the state today to approve a plan to replace its 111-year-old Joliet facility with a new medical complex in New Lenox. WE SAY: While we know this is going to affect low-income people who live on Joliet's East Side, the current location has no room for expansion and its age makes remodeling too expensive. Given that the proposed site is only three miles away and that Silver Cross is keeping its immediate care facility in Joliet open, we believe the state should green light this project. Almost a year ago, Silver Cross Hospital unveiled a proposal for replacing its land-locked Joliet facility with a $398 million medical complex at U.S. 6 and Interstate 355 in New Lenox. The new center would offer amenities such as large private rooms, new CT scan and MRI equipment, 11 surgical suites and an enhanced relationship with Children's Memorial Hospital, bolstering its pediatric services. But as several hospitals in the Southland have discovered the hard way, having ambitious plans and getting the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board to approve them are two different things. It's a bit like going before the Wizard of Oz and hoping the Wicked Witch's broom will be sufficient for him to grant your request. And this will be a tough one to call. On the one hand, Silver Cross officials are right - the aging facility has had so many additions that expansion space is almost nil, and remodeling would cost more than a new building. If it's tough to get from point A to point B from the perspective of a visitor or patient, it's that much tougher for the employees who need to transport people for tests, provide meals and get lab results. Efficiency would be low on the list of the 111-year-old hospital's good points. On the other, the hospital has a big base of patients from Joliet's East Side who qualify as lower income. They have a limited ability to travel far for health care and may have a greater need for the existing facility given that about 27 percent are under- or uninsured. Joliet officials are opposed for those reasons as well as the financial blow it will deal to the city. Had you asked us our opinion four years ago, when St. Francis Hospital and Advocate Health Care had plans for new facilities in Orland Park and Tinley Park on the table, the answer would have been easy. Both would have served the Lincoln-Way area, would have been great additions to the medical corridor already established along southern LaGrange Road and would likely have made Silver Cross' plans moot. However, since neither proposal won the planning board's blessing, we say there are more pros than cons to Silver Cross' project. First and foremost is its 70-acre location provides great access to people in Mokena, Frankfort and New Lenox, many of whom now either go to Silver Cross or Provena St. Joseph Medical Center in Joliet or to hospitals in more populated areas deeper in the Southland. Hospital officials say about 50 percent of its patient base is from outside Joliet; the new facility would be more central to those it serves. We think Silver Cross makes a strong point in arguing the distance between the old facility and the new is somewhat semantical. It's a separation of three miles, and not only will it be accessible via I-355, it's very close to Interstate 80. Officials say most patients and employees drive to Silver Cross right now, but for those who lack access to a vehicle, Pace will provide bus service to the new complex. That won't help much if you're making an emergency room visit, but Silver Cross has an answer for that, too. It will keep its immediate care center open at the Joliet site. They also plan to spend $4 million a year for the first 10 years on charity care for people who can't pay their hospital bills. In 2007, $2.7 million went to charity care. We know many hold out hope that there might still be a hospital in the cards for the Orland/Tinley area. We'd love for that to be true, but no new proposals have been put on the table. Given that, this new complex would offer a new option for Orland and Tinley area residents who, we might add, already live in relative close proximity to a number of very good hospitals, including Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Palos Community Hospital in Palos Heights and Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park. We hope the facilities planning board sees it this way, too. Silver Cross should be given a green light. 
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