
Dozens of employees have been furloughed at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan as the hospital seeks emergency funding a year after it had its trauma center designation temporarily revoked.
Vista Health System President and CEO Kevin M. Spiegel made the announcement to staff last week.
Spiegel said American Healthcare Systems, the owner of Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, is “dedicated to ensuring the success of Vista Medical Center to continue to serve our community.”
“As you may be aware, Vista has encountered significant economic challenges over the years, largely due to our commitment to serving our community that faces adverse challenges that often require more complex care due to acute illnesses, comorbid conditions, and challenging social and financial circumstances with many being self-insured and uninsured patients,” Spiegel said.
He said the hospital received emergency funding from American Healthcare Systems on several occasions last year to address costs related to staff and medical supplies.
Vista Health System has been working to apply for safety net status. Safety net providers deliver a significant level of healthcare and related services to uninsured, Medicaid and other low-income patients, which allows them to receive extra government funding.
Vista Health System is currently seeking emergency funding from local and state legislators, Spiegel said.
“As we await the State of Illinois’s determination regarding both the Safety Net Status and the outcomes of our Emergency Funding requests, it is imperative for Vista to access its current operations and financial strategy,” he said in announcing the furloughs.
“This restructuring will enable us to better align staffing with the hospital’s essential service lines to best serve,” Spiegel added.
Vista said the furlough, which impacts 69 workers, will last an estimated six weeks.
“This measure is necessary to provide the financial relief and operational efficiencies required to achieve stability and foster future growth,” Spiegel said.
The message said that the company would notify those placed on furlough of their “potential return” once “financial relief has been secured.”
County records show Vista Medical Center East is delinquent in paying over $1 million in 2023 property taxes and a lien has been placed on the property.
The furloughs come less than a year after the hospital had its Level 2 trauma designation revoked in early February 2024. The state reinstated the designation a month later in March.
The change resulted in ambulances having to transport patients with serious injuries to other hospitals besides Vista, such as Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital or Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, which are further away.
It also meant patients with serious injuries who walked into Vista had to be transferred to other hospitals.
The temporary revocation of the trauma center designation came following an Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) on-site investigation at Vista, which included observations, record reviews and interviews.
The state’s investigation, initiated following a complaint, showed the hospital failed to meet the federal requirements for participation as a hospital in the Medicare program.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a letter that Vista Medical Center East failed to ensure appropriate providers were available to provide necessary services for patients and that the hospital failed to ensure an institutional plan and budget exist.
“This impacted the availability of services and supplies necessary for patient care,” the HHS said in the letter. The IDPH then revoked the trauma center designation.
In late December 2023, Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek sent a letter outlining her concerns with Vista Medical Center East to Vista Health System Board Trustee George Bridges.
Vista Health System, previously owned by Quorum Health Corporation, was purchased by American Healthcare Systems, which took over the company in July 2023. It was the third change in ownership in five years.
“As the Lake County Coroner, I have dedicated much of my time to investigating preventable deaths. As you likely already appreciate, healthcare access is a social determinant of health that can significantly impact a community’s mortality rate,” Banek said in the letter.
“A precursor to preventable death may often commence with a barrier in access to quality healthcare. Indeed, when we parse through much of our data at the coroner’s office, Waukegan is particularly vulnerable,” Banek added.
In addition to being the county’s coroner, Banek is a certified registered nurse anesthetist who previously administered anesthesia to patients of Vista Medical Center East.
“The Waukegan community desperately needs hospital services; however, I have some grave concerns regarding VMCE’s financial stability, thus compromising its ability to serve the Waukegan community and placing its people at further risk,” Banek said.
The coroner said at the time that doctors were leaving the hospital because they had either not been paid in months or the checks they received were returned for insufficient funds.
“Many persons who have noted these circumstances have tried to ameliorate the circumstances with hospital administration, to no avail,” Banek said.
Banek said a patient’s hip surgery was delayed because the prosthesis representative would not come into the hospital to assist with the surgery until they had been compensated.
Banek also said in her letter that basic equipment, such as hospital beds, were often in disrepair with brakes being broken.
The coroner told Lake and McHenry County Scanner in January 2024 she believed approximately half of the doctors at Vista Medical Center East left the hospital since it was acquired in July 2023.