Centegra: Considering All Options

Centegra Hospital-Huntley was one vote away from becoming a reality.

Eight members of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board were in attendance Wednesday at the hearing in Bolingbrook — a hearing to consider the Centegra plan and the Mercy Health Care plan for a Crystal Lake hospital.

One board member was absent.

The review board’s final vote on the proposed $233 million Centegra-Huntley hospital came down to a 4-4 tie. Five votes were needed to approve Centegra’s certificate of need application.

“I kind of wish that other board member was there,” Huntley Mayor Charles Sass said during a special Village Board meeting Thursday. “Obviously, the decision (on the Huntley hospital) was disappointing. We’re waiting for Centegra to regroup.”

Sass proceeded to commend village staff members for time and energy spent working on behalf of the project.

For its part, Centegra Health Care System ran a sizeable advertising campaign over the past few months pushing for the 128-bed hospital, earmarked for the Centegra Huntley campus at Haligus and Algonquin roads.

Huntley village administrators, staff, village board members and representatives from the Huntley Fire Protection District and Consolidated School District 158 spent the whole day in Bolingbrook, all for an opportunity to speak in favor of the project — for one very brief moment — to the review board.

In recent months, community volunteers manned telephones personally to discuss aspects of the plan with residents. Local businesses and homeowners posted yard signs in their lawns to express their support. Centegra workers and Huntley residents held a rally last Friday afternoon, despite the cold and darkening skies, to create awareness for the upcoming vote. Petitions were signed, and letters were amassed.

But still, Centegra-Huntley met the same fate as the Mercy Health Care System certificate of need for a 70-bed hospital on the southeast side of Crystal Lake. Both plans were denied. Mercy was defeated 6-2.

“Everybody did a great job on this,” Sass said. “I’m proud of everybody. It just didn’t happen.”

Centegra Must Resubmit Certificate of Need Plans to Advance

With the hearing over, Centegra officials have expressed disappointment. The certificate of need application process only allows for two hearings. If Centegra wants to continue efforts to push for the plan, the company must resubmit a certificate of need application, said Susan Milford, Centegra’s senior vice president for strategic marketing and planning.

Submitting an application costs $100,000, Milford said.

“We are really considering all our alternatives right now,” Milford said. “We still believe this is an underserved area (for health care). We still feel that we have the right project for the community … I can unequivocally say that we’re still committed to that area.”   

Milford said review board members who voted against Huntley hospital may have been concerned about the potential impact on other area hospitals, particularly Sherman Hospital in Elgin.

Area Hospitals Opposed Centegra-Huntley

Sherman Hospital and Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, located in Barrington, released statements welcoming the review board decision. Representatives for both hospitals argued there isn’t a need for additional hospital beds in southeast McHenry County, pointing to decreased bed occupancy rates in existing facilities over the past year due to the economic downturn.

“We thank the review board for its vote to deny these projects, and believe this supports our position that no new hospitals are needed in McHenry County,” said Karen Lambert, president of Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital.

Centegra officials countered that position at the hearing, saying there is a calculated need, according to the review board’s own data, for 178 additional beds in the Huntley area, now home to nearly 10,000 senior residents living in the Del Webb Sun City development.

Still, with the struggling economy and uncertainty of health-care reform looming on the horizon, some board members could not be convinced a new Huntley hospital would not take patients away from other hospitals.

“We support the Review Board’s ‘no’ vote on these projects,” said Rick Floyd, president and CEO of Sherman Health. “The board’s action supports our contention that these projects would duplicate health care services that already exist for residents of northern Kane County and southeastern McHenry County.”