Thursday, March 10, 2022

Resilience Healthcare To Purchase Weiss Hospital

Weiss Memorial Hospital, 4646 N. Marine Drive

News broke this morning that Pipeline Health has agreed in principle to sell West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and Uptown's own Weiss Memorial Hospital to Resilience Healthcare and owner Manoj Prasad. The overall deal is worth $92M, and the sale will not be final until it is approved by the Illinois Health Facilities and Service Review Board.

Prasad is a community hospital specialist and his new entity, Resilience, will be his first foray into hospital ownership. He has committed to the hospitals by leaving his current home in Detroit and purchasing a new home near West Suburban.  He expects to be a 'hands on' operator and appears very committed to strengthening both hospitals.

Both hospitals will remain exactly as they are now, hospitals, with investments made to hire more staff and improve facilities. As part of the deal, Pipeline has committed to donate an additional $12M of the sale proceeds to the new entity and two hospitals. There are currently 100 positions open at each facility after challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This news should come as a relief to people who feared Pipeline Health would close Weiss and leave Uptown without a hospital. Pipeline ended up keeping Weiss open and poured millions into new facilities and operations, including a new orthopedics department and a gender clinic. We are hopeful for the long term future of the hospital given Pipeline's investment, Mr. Prasad's history and his commitment to the hospitals.  We wish Mr. Prasad and Resilience much success in their new endeavor.

Read more at Crain's (subscription required) 

UPDATE: You can read more in Ald. Cappleman's newsletter.

7 comments:

  1. Weiss gets sold to Pipeline, UU goes yay, no worries! Pipeline spins part of the property for condos, UU goes hey! they are still the good guys! Pipeline sells Weiss immediately after to a guy who never ran a hospital, UU tells us we should not worry at all. Wonder what UU is going to write in a couple of years when the new entity quietly closes the hospital?

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    1. Face value.. This transfer does nothing good...time will tell.

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  2. That poor hospital. I had a very successful op back in the 1990s when Weiss was affiliated with the U of C hospitals. Since then it's changed hands, what? 10 times? I've lost count.

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  3. Remember Weiss quite well. As a a kid back in the 60s was taken there to get stitches in my finger. Have not been back since. Hope Uptown can at least keep their line hospital. Would hate to see it go.

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  4. After a recent visit to Weiss Hospital for emergency treatment of a broken ankle I suffered and treated by a 3rd rate doctor (and staff) I am cautiously (?) optimistic these new owners will bring about some much-needed change. If this doesn't work then maybe it should be closed once and for all. Keeping my fingers crossed!!

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  5. Hi Kathy, you've certainly made your viewpoint known on many occasions, and I think it's especially important to hear from others with differing viewpoints. Thank you!!! You make some good points, but it also needs to be stated that Pipeline put in considerable amount of money into Weiss, so the sale price also reflects the additional funds they put into the hospital.

    I know people were concerned about a parking lot getting used for non-medical reasons, but what also needs to be stated is that their medical office building located on the north side of Weiss has been 50% - 80% vacant for well over 10 years, so there is considerable room for expansion for more medical services. In addition, the proceeds from the sale of this under utilized parking lot will all go to support Weiss Hospital programming, and that benefits anyone who receives care from this hospital.

    I fully understand that many people believe that building more high-end housing will price out other residents. All the research we've come across (which is considerable) say otherwise. The law of supply and demand is the primary factor that affects area rents. What we do know is that the vast majority of affordable housing in Uptown, Chicago, and the entire country is naturally occurring affordable housing, which is housing that is privately owned. We also know that if the demand for affordable housing is high, housing providers will buy up the naturally occurring affordable housing and make that high-end housing, and they can do it without requesting an upzone. When that occurs, no elected official has the authority to require the new owner to continue to provide affordable rents. I know many people have a belief that their local aldermen can block permits in such cases, but the laws don't allow that.

    Here's an article that speaks to building high-end buildings in areas of lower incomes: https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/new-apartment-buildings-low-income-areas-decrease-nearby-rents

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  6. Kathy, we posted your response. We don't check comments incessantly, and there is an occasional delay in us approving comments for publication. We take it this answers your question?

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