From Todays Daily Herald

This was in today's Daily Herald, another delay, how enjoyable! The picture is of the hearing a few months ago where 100's and 100's of people came to demand health care in western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County.

Lake County residents will likely have to wait four months to learn the fate of hospitals proposals in Lindenhurst and Round Lake.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which determines the need for and oversees construction of new hospitals and expansion projects, Tuesday deferred any decision until its January meeting. The board will likely defer both plans again at each monthly meeting until April, officials said.

New rules governing the way the need for patient beds is calculated will be published Dec. 14. Those rules must then go through a state approval process before becoming law.

"We are anticipating that these rules will be in effect sometime in March," said Jeffrey Mark, executive secretary of the facilities planning board.

It is unclear how those rules will affect either project.

Vista Health wants to build a 140-bed, $100 million hospital in Lindenhurst. Advocate Health Care's plan calls for a 144-bed, $251 million hospital in Round Lake.

There's likely room for only one to move forward. If either is approved, it would mean the first new hospital in Lake County in 30 years.

The planning board wanted to give both hospital groups time to digest the new rules and adjust projects accordingly.

Representatives of Vista and rival Advocate were pleased with the deferrals, as neither was ready for a decision Tuesday on their competing proposals.

"The new rules will only help the merit of our project," Vista CEO Barbara Martin said. "We're still in the game and we intend to have a successful project in the end."

Martin said the previous rules were more than 10 years old and not in step with today's standards.

In the previous legislative session, the facilities planning board was asked to revise how it calculates the need for services. It was asked to use 10-year population estimates and consider patient migration -- people receiving services at health-care facilities in a planning area other than where they live.

While the future of the hospital proposals hinges on the board's decision, none of the players would speculate how things will shake out.

Advocate spokeswoman Kelly Jo Golson said the new rules will provide a more accurate count of bed need.

"We are committed to the needs of the community, whatever form that takes," she said.

A 45-day public comment period and a public hearing will follow the Dec. 14 publication of the new rules in the Illinois Registry.

If the facilities planning board chooses, it can then make changes to the proposed rules, which still must be approved by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Mark said.