Bitter Disapointment

Yesterday the Illinois Hospital Facilities Board approved the merger between Advocate and Condell. Advocate is going to take the following steps:

• Use Condell's unbuilt 200 (approved) hospital beds and build a hospital at Condell in Libertyville.
• Make that facility a Level One Trauma Center.
• Hopefully make Blue Cross Blue Shield available to people again at this new facility.

Lastly, since the Illinois Hospital Facilities Board denied the ability for Advocate to build a hospital and a free standing emergency center, the region and Round Lake will get nothing.

Through all of this Advocate has been upfront with us about the process, we may have not liked the answers, but at least we were kept in the loop. I don't blame them for this, they listened to us and believed in us and our needs. Ultimately this is probably the best decision for them because they can build a hospital, something the state would clearly not let them do in Round Lake

I do blame the failure of leadership at the state level that is squarely centered on Governor Blagojevich. His inability to appoint honest members (see Stuart Levine and Tony Rezko) to the above mentioned hospital board has led to a paralysis of action at that board. So last year when the opportunity was at "100% ready to build from all parties" for a hospital in Round Lake, the board was unable to act. His lack of an ethical moral compass leads directly to us not getting this opportunity.

There is a bright side the new hospital will only be 19 minutes away from us! Down congested roads, and over train tracks.