press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss upcoming plans for Oak Forest Hospital.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) Dr. Terry Mason held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss upcoming plans for Oak Forest Hospital.

In light of the decision by the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Board, CCHHS will begin today the process of a modified plan of operations for Oak Forest Hospital.

Oak Forest Hospital will continue to operate a 24/7 emergency room. To help alleviate some strain on their Emergency Department, Oak Forest will be adding a clinic adjacent to the Emergency Room to help serve patients and refill prescriptions.

"We anticipate that more than half the Emergency Department patients will be able to use that new clinic as opposed to waiting the Emergency Room," said Dr. Mason.

The Hospital will operate a reduced Medical Unit with continued services, but will suspend ICU, Acute Rehab and Surgery. Currently, there are four long term care patients that will be transferred into the Medical/Surgery Unit.

As of June 1st, there are 20 patients at Oak Forest Hospital. The anticipated cost of continuing inpatient care is nearly $2 million a month.

Both Preckwinkle and Mason emphasized their commitment to the Strategic Plan and the transformation of the Oak Forest Campus into a Regional Outpatient Center.

"Despite the Board's decision, I remain committed to the comprehensive Vision 2015 Strategic Plan to provide quality medical services to Cook County residents. The transition of Oak Forest Hospital to the Regional Health Center at Oak Forest allows the facility to expand the services it offers and add primary care doctors to better serve the people of the south suburbs. On a broader level, these changes contribute to the sustainability of our County's Health and Hospitals System," said Preckwinkle.

The plan to transform Oak Forest Hospital into a Regional Outpatient Center (ROC) was submitted to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board for approval. The plan was denied on May 12, 2011.

Currently the nine-member board has three vacancies and two members sitting on expired terms. In order to win approval, the action would have needed five votes. Five of the six members were present for the proposal; four voted in favor of the CCHHS proposal, only one against.

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