The Lake County coroner says Vista Medical Center East is “gambling with people’s lives” after the hospital decided to reduce hours available to care for patients potentially suffering from a heart attack and in need of specialized treatment.
In a message obtained by the Lake & McHenry County Scanner, Vista CEO Aundrea Styles said the hospital will be shutting down their CATH Lab from 6:30 p.m. until & 7 a.m. Monday through Friday, and will not take patients at the lab on weekends.
The CATH lab stands for cardiac catheterization laboratory, a specialized hospital room equipped with imaging technology where doctors are able to perform minimally invasive tests and procedures to diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions like heart attacks.
In response, Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said restricting cardiac CATH Lab services is “gambling with patients lives.”
“Emergency cardiac events don’t just happen during business hours,” Banek said. “Delays in interventions can turn manageable conditions that respond to timely treatment into life-threatening crises that cost more resources and worsen patient care.”
The message from Styles said that Vista will not take any STEMI patents outside of the hours of operation. In non-medical verbiage, STEMI means ST-elevation myocardial infarction, a serious type of heart attack where a major artery supplying blood to the heart is completely blocked, causing a lack of oxygen to the heart muscle.
Styles said in the message the reduction in hours is a “temporary solution to give us the time needed to safely rebuild our team.”
“We anticipate that this process will take approximately 60 days, after which we plan to return to our 24/7 operation model,” the message reads.
Because of the reduced hours, Banek said patients suffering from a heart attack outside of normal business hours will need to be transported to a different hospital, increasing the medical response times.
“Community members who would traditionally be transported to Vista for emergency cardiac care will need to be diverted to neighboring hospitals when an emergency arises outside business hours,” Banek said.
This is just the latest of numerous problems uncovered at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
Earlier this week, it was uncovered that Illinois utility electrical supplier ComEd has filed a lawsuit in Lake County Circuit Court claiming Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan owes more than $800,000 in unpaid electrical bills.
That lawsuit specifically names American Healthcare Systems Illinois LLC, Victory Hospital, and Waukegan Illinois Hospital Company as the defendants in the case. Vista Medical Center East used to be known as Victory Hospital before a name change years ago.
According to the complaint filed in Lake County Circuit Court on March 5, the hospital has failed to pay a grand total of $822,321.51 to ComEd for electrical service at 1324 N. Sheridan Road in Waukegan.
The failure to pay, the lawsuit reads, constitutes a breach of statutory duty as a “retail customer must pay the company for the amounts charged… for electrical service.”
ComEd is seeking the court to force the hospital to pay the complete amount due, interest, and court costs.
In January, the family of Chelsea Adolphus, 28, of Waukegan, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Vista Medical Center East after she was found unresponsive on the hospital’s rooftop and died from cold exposure.
Adolphus was admitted to the hospital around 4 a.m. on January 22 seeking medical treatment and help.
She left her patient room on the fifth floor around 2 a.m. on January 23 and was discovered almost seven hours later on the second-floor rooftop of the hospital at approximately 8:45 a.m., Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek said previously.
She was found unresponsive on the rooftop while only wearing her hospital gown while temperatures hovered in the low 20s, Banek said.
She died later that day after lifesaving measures failed to resuscitate her.
Vista Medical Center East has also been facing a whirlwind of financial problems since losing its Level 2 trauma designation in February of 2024. That trauma designation was reinstated a month later.
However, the hospital furloughed dozens of employees in January of 2025 and admitted to being delinquent in paying over $1 million in 2023 property taxes.
In addition, water bills to the city of Waukegan dated December 2024 show Vista owes $190,585 in unpaid bills. It’s unknown at this time if that bill has been paid.
Previous Vista CEO Kevin M. Spiegel said American Healthcare Systems, the owner of Vista Medical Center East, is “dedicated to ensuring the success of Vista Medical Center to continue to serve our community.”
He said the hospital received emergency funding from American Healthcare Systems on several occasions in 2024 to address costs related to staff and medical supplies. He added the hospital is 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 was also 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 when announcing the furloughs in January.