a view from the heap

This particular post will not mean all that much to those who live outside of the area, but it is an important example of what elected officials can do if they're given too much of the leash. I urge anyone who does live in the area of Cook County to share this with as many friends and family members as possible. The services afforded the residents of Cook County should not be cut without first consulting those whom it will affect, so let them know that it's not okay, contact your officials and make a big noise.

April 20, 2007
A View From the Heap


When one is standing outside looking over any type of perceived garbage heap, the truth is that it appears nothing more than an eyesore whose time has passed and requires a cleanup. But from inside the heap looking out we see so much more. Oak Forest Hospital seems to be in the midst of this phenomenon. The County Administration has deemed the hospital a drain on the budget when in fact it could be a solvent component of Cook County Health Services if they would only choose to allow it.

Oak Forest Hospital has been an integral part of the South Suburban community for over 100 years and should continue to be for many more. A misconception of just what Oak Forest Hospital is seems to have loomed over it for years and the County has done nothing to dispense of this ill-conceived notion. In essence, Oak Forest Hospital is a large, sprawling campus about which many residents of the South suburbs know nothing. It is much more than that.

I remember pulling up onto the hospital grounds my first day and being intimidated, if by nothing else, by its sheer size. I remember thinking that my grandfather gave 53 years of service to this place and raised his 16 children while working here. And I remembered coming here as a Cub Scout and volunteering to help patients with those mundane tasks so many of us perform without even a thought. It quickly became more than that. I realized shortly after arriving that I had become part of a community of caring whose sole purpose was to improve the quality of life for these patients whose names and faces Dr. Simon and Mr. Stroger are seeking to readily forget and toss aside.

More than just a place of employment for hundreds of dedicated workers, Oak Forest Hospital gives, in Dr. Simon’s own words, premium care in a park like setting. And who wouldn’t want to give that kind of an environment to patients who could conceivably spend the rest of their lives residing here. But it’s more than even that. Oak Forest Hospital provides a necessary service to the residents of the South Suburbs. It is a trauma center, an exceptional rehabilitation facility and a home to hundreds of patients who have nowhere else to go. Instead of seeking to eliminate long-term care perhaps the services provided here should be expanded.

A short while back I remember reading that injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are finding they’ve nowhere to go, as the VA Hospitals are all full. We’ve got beds here, hundreds of them, with easy access for families to visit, acres of land on which to recover from the dangers these heroes encountered to facilitate our continued freedom, and hundreds of thoughtful, caring people waiting to provide them the kind of care they deserve. Nothing, it seems, is being done by the administration to save instead of dissolve this institution of caring and that’s a shame.

Maybe instead of outsourcing the service departments and dissolving the various therapeutic services and discarding these patients who have made Oak Forest Hospital their homes, we should be seeking to outsource the administration of the Cook County Healthcare System. If this were a publicly held corporation that was losing money continually due to mismanagement, the shareholders would be screaming for the ouster of its inept and inexperienced administrators. Well guess what, it is. The taxpayers of Cook County have just as much right to demand answers as the shareholders of any corporation.

From inside the trash heap, the view is more of a mess from on the outside looking in. Unanswered questions surface regarding a budget that is consistently referenced but has yet to surface. Turmoil looms in the distance for both the employees and, more importantly, the residents of Oak Forest Hospital. New layoff notices are expected daily and no one knows for sure just what direction this administration is seeking to take. There is a lot more to Oak Forest Hospital than much of the community knows, the current County administration knows that and even though several highly paid PR people, who don’t talk to the press, are compensated to make them aware. I’m happy to share this information at a much lower cost to the taxpayers than $86,000 a year.