“CHO” is a play on Community Hospital of Ottawa; honoring the past and our hospital’s legacy dating back to the 1970s

• The hospital that exists today was built in 1971 (opened in 1974) on 30 acres of land donated by Silica Foundation 

OSF has owned and operated the hospital in Ottawa, IL since 2012, when Ottawa Regional Hospital & Healthcare Center’s board members voted to affiliate with the system in exchange for all hospital and medical group assets – then valued at $58 million  

• OSF was given the hospital and medical group assets FOR FREE.  
• The Ottawa board members at that time were trying to protect this community asset in the face of a changing healthcare industry – making a choice to trust in the OSF Health System that they would be a faithful partner and sustain Ottawa’s hospital operations well into the future.  
• What OSF is doing today is exactly what this community was hoping to avoid when partnering with the system in 2012; the backing of a large system is supposed to ensure sustainable growth and program development

Make no mistake about it, these plans are a reduction in access to health care services and providers for the residents of Ottawa. OSF’s proposed plans are to move all essential inpatient hospital services to Peru, IL because that better aligns with their true hubs – St. Francis Hospital in Peoria and St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.  

• OSF talks about maintaining access to care in the “I-80 corridor”, but if you look at their geographic footprint on the “I-39 corridor” then you will see that this is where the OSF system is truly worried about maintaining care.  They need a funnel to Peoria and Rockford, and it looks better on a map to build up Peru – even though it is a landlocked hospital that was in financial ruins – rather than build up Ottawa – a financially profitable member of their system with acres of land for growth and development. 

• The applicants have proposed decommissioning and demolishing an existing 97-bed facility (that currently allocates 27% of beds to Acute Mental Illness), and replacing it with a 38-bed facility that will then allocate 68% of services to Acute Mental Illness – while eliminating access to inpatient ICU and OB/GYN services entirely, and reducing inpatient med/surg beds by 80%. 
• Peru will become the only birthing center in a 3 county region (LaSalle, Putnam & Bureau Counties) – Note: this 3 county region is the planning region the state board categorizes us in. 
• There will be no ICU beds East of I-39 in LaSalle County

Critical Access Hospitals have 2x the beds that OSF is giving to Ottawa

• The 2-campus plan hides the fact that Ottawa will now operate at levels lower than critical access hospitals – which are 25 inpatient beds in size.  
• By only having 12 inpatient beds at Ottawa hospital, we are essentially a freestanding ED with beds for observation before transferring to another facility. 
• It is our understanding that physician hospitalists will not be servicing Ottawa, only a mid-level provider (e.g. physician assistant, advanced practice nurse or nurse practitioner) will be available to round on patients on the “inpatient unit”.  Furthermore, who are the leaders and staff manning the inpatient unit at night? This is a potential safety issue. 

The Acute Mental Illness (“AMI”) unit is the only area that OSF has planned for growth in Ottawa.  And while they say the new facility is being “sized perfectly for our community’s needs”, these psychiatric patients will be referred from a huge geographical area, spanning several counties. 

• Ottawa’s AMI unit is lumped into a 13-county planning region, and is one of only 5 AMI units across those 13 counties.  The other 4 units are all located in Peoria.  OSF has said that they expect an additional 400 patients to be served by their updated unit in Ottawa. 
• A patient origin analysis (i.e. which zip code patients reside in) would be simple for OSF to run, and would likely prove that this patient population is in fact a very small percentage of residents from Ottawa and surrounding communities. 
• It would be nice to see what discharge processes are in place for these patients (i.e. connecting them to community organizations (in their local communities); transportation support, etc.)
• From a clinical standpoint, AMI patients need medical clearance before being admitted to the AMI unit.  Therefore the planned influx of patients for this service will likely fill most of the 12 medical/surgical beds planned for Ottawa.
• Some segments of the AMI patient population require detox in an ICU, but there is not one planned for the new Ottawa hospital. How will these patients be managed? 

We need more details on the new “state of the art” surgical center planned for Ottawa

• The surgery department planned for Ottawa is a 60% reduction in size (5 operating rooms today vs. 2 planned for the new hospital)
• Why invest in a state-of-the-art surgery center and then reduce IP surgical bed capacity by 80%? 
• What surgical specialties are planned to stay in Ottawa vs. Peru?
• What volumes are projected for Ottawa? 
• What state-of-the-art equipment is planned for purchase; and will the MAKO stay with orthopaedics at Ottawa? 
• It is unclear if surgery at Ottawa will be billed as an Ambulatory Surgery Center (“ASC”) or a Hospital Outpatient Department (“HOPD”)?  The charge rate will be higher if HOPD, but it will essentially be an ASC

They claim the cost to build a larger Ottawa hospital was not cost effective, but when you add up all of the investments being made in Peru it’s essentially a wash

• In their applications to the state, OSF submitted alternative plans to what they are currently proposing; 2 of those alternatives included a new hospital in Ottawa that maintained services near levels they are at today. They go on to state that once Peru hospital had closed, they decided to purchase the closed facility and changed direction with their plans. 
• OSF’s current plans:
  • $138 million for Ottawa’s new hospital as proposed 
  • $38 million for OSF to purchase Peru, $6 million to modernize it; and most certainly other hidden costs not disclosed (e.g. Epic integration; lab upgrades; physician call expenses – e.g. hotels vs living in distance of hospital)
  • 138 + 38 + 6 = $182 million+ spend as proposed.  
• OSF’s alternative plans:
  • $180-$250 million to build a replacement hospital in Ottawa with near-same inpatient care levels for medical/surgical; ICU; and OB
  • This alternative was considered by OSF prior to Peru’s closure and OSF’s acquisition
• Future capital spread across Peru and Ottawa campuses vs. just one campus 

OSF cannot use the argument that “rural health care is dying” 

• “Rural health care is dying” translates to rural health care providers are losing money.  But Ottawa hospital has operated at a financial gain for the past several years; unlike St. Margaret in Peru.  (see tables on following page)
• Ottawa hospital recently received an “A” rating from Leapfrog Group – a leader in providing transparency around patient safety and quality metrics. This puts them in the same company as University of Chicago Medical Center, Rush University Medical Center, Northwestern Central DuPage, Elmhurst Hospital and Silver Cross Hospital, among others
• In both 2022 and 2023, Ottawa was designated as a “Top 100 Rural & Community Hospital in the Country” by The Chartis Center for Rural Health, the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance.  It was one of only 3 rural hospitals in Illinois to receive the distinction in 2023.
• Other accolades for Ottawa: Newsweek Magazine’s 2020 Best Maternity Care Hospital and Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Blue Distinction Center for Maternity Care

This is an example of “Rural Health Care Dying” (Peru Hospital)…

… This is NOT (Ottawa Hospital)

There are legitimate concerns with operating Peru and Ottawa under the same hospital license

• Easier for OSF to “move beds” from Ottawa to Peru
• Why would OSF choose not to use Peru’s license? 

OSF is one of the largest employers in Ottawa, if not THE largest

• Loss of jobs to neighboring town
• Loss of real estate sales to neighboring town (and related banking)
• Economic loss to local businesses (retail; restaurants; etc) as employees are moved from Ottawa

Other concerns include:

• Impact to Nursing Homes / Long Term Care Centers
• Having a hospital has been a key selling point for businesses, such as Heritage Harbor
• Recruitment for educators: the pipeline of teachers and administration 

There are also unanswered questions about where approximately $30million dollars in reserved funds from the Ottawa hospital’s foundation have gone

• At the time OSF acquired Ottawa hospital, the foundation had approximately $30M in funds that were intended to be spent on programs/services/facilities in Ottawa only. 
• Would like the accounting from OSF on how these funds were spent 

Perhaps most importantly:

This is not about arguing that residents of Peru should not have access to quality health care facilities and services.  This is about the citizens of Ottawa being educated and empowered to voice concerns about the loss of access to critical health care services for ourselves and our loved ones. 

The Citizens for Healthcare in Ottawa group members respectfully ask for the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board members to vote no on these projects as written today.  We ask that OSF takes a pause to reflect on the wide-reaching impact of their proposed plans and come up with a better solution that does not alienate a community who has given them their trust to be a strong and steadfast partner.