Illinois residents said they are hopeful about Pipeline Health's proposed sale of two Chicago area hospitals but have concerns based on Pipeline's history, the Chicago Tribune reported March 17.
Los Angeles-based Pipeline recently signed a letter of intent, it was reported in early March, to sell West Suburban Medical Center in suburban Chicago Oak Park, Ill., and Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago to Michigan-based Resilience Healthcare.
Pipeline purchased the two hospitals and the now shuttered Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park, Ill., three years ago. It has since angered the community by closing Westlake after saying it lost too much money, and for selling a Weiss Memorial parking lot to a developer to build apartments, which some worried would worsen gentrification, according to the Tribune.
Pipeline said it will give the $12 million it received from selling the parking lot to Resilience to reinvest in the hospitals, the Tribune reported.
But critics of Pipeline say they don't trust the sale.
"It's really a slap in the face ... to the people who work at Weiss Hospital because they are just in limbo again as to their job security," Angela Clay, a board member with Northside Action for Justice, told the Tribune. "It's like ripping a band-aid off of a wound that never got a chance to heal."
Others say they are happy to see Pipeline go because of its track record.
"We think it's a victory that Pipeline is out of the picture," Marc Kaplan, also a Northside Action for Justice board member, told the Tribune. "We just don’t know anything about Resilience."
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