Huge Cover Up in Round Lake!

I found this on the internet which is a series of tubes (according to a United States Senator) and could not help but deciding in a nano-second to post this link.

Here is how I think it all went down, there was an accident on 120 and since the aliens could not get to a hospital in time they called in a UFO Flight to Life to transport them to the Planet Gentes which is a planet in the Star Wars series in the Anorat system and it took them, owing to faster then light travel and no traffic congestion in space, less then 19 minutes to get there!

Hopefully they take Blue Cross Blue Shield there as well! For some reason pictures won't load today so no pictures.

Bitter Disapointment

Yesterday the Illinois Hospital Facilities Board approved the merger between Advocate and Condell. Advocate is going to take the following steps:

• Use Condell's unbuilt 200 (approved) hospital beds and build a hospital at Condell in Libertyville.
• Make that facility a Level One Trauma Center.
• Hopefully make Blue Cross Blue Shield available to people again at this new facility.

Lastly, since the Illinois Hospital Facilities Board denied the ability for Advocate to build a hospital and a free standing emergency center, the region and Round Lake will get nothing.

Through all of this Advocate has been upfront with us about the process, we may have not liked the answers, but at least we were kept in the loop. I don't blame them for this, they listened to us and believed in us and our needs. Ultimately this is probably the best decision for them because they can build a hospital, something the state would clearly not let them do in Round Lake

I do blame the failure of leadership at the state level that is squarely centered on Governor Blagojevich. His inability to appoint honest members (see Stuart Levine and Tony Rezko) to the above mentioned hospital board has led to a paralysis of action at that board. So last year when the opportunity was at "100% ready to build from all parties" for a hospital in Round Lake, the board was unable to act. His lack of an ethical moral compass leads directly to us not getting this opportunity.

There is a bright side the new hospital will only be 19 minutes away from us! Down congested roads, and over train tracks.

The Actual Study Used by the Illinois Hospital Facilities Board

I was able to obtain the actual report used by the Illinois Facilities Board to deny Advocate's request to build a hospital at the corner of 120 and Wilson Road. Here is the report.

Some of my more technical readers may enjoy delving into this. I am tempted to use the document to attempt to reproduce the results with more accuracy!

Advocate, Mapquest and Pumpkins

I hate to quote a Republican but I think President Ronald Regan said it best:

The most frightening words in the English language are - I am from the government and I am here to help!

I have a variety of things to say about the Illinois Hospital Facility Planning Board's (IHFPB) decision to not build a hospital in either Lindenhurst or Round Lake. So I am going to put them in no particular order.

• Here are links to various articles on the subject in the Daily Herald, News Sun and Chicago Tribune.
• Google Maps says it takes 22 minutes from Wilson and 120 to Condell in Libertyville.
  Mapquest says it takes 19 minutes.
  My Tom Tom satellite navigation system says 26 minutes.
  
• Non-stop comments from people about my Daily Herald quote of "Pumpkin Heads" Overwhelmingly people seem to enjoy my equating bureaucrats to orange, soft, mushy, big headed pumpkins.
• One email comment:
  The government will allow banks to build on every corner, regardless of anyone's "assessment" of the "need" for another bank, while providing trillions of dollars of insurance to depositors in case the banking system fails due to over expansion, or any other reason. But the government won't allow a private entity to invest its own money into a health care facility because Mapquest doesn't say it is needed??

Finally I decided to do some research to simulate a quasi emergency and how we would need to race from Round Lake (120 and Wilson) to Condell Hospital in Libertyville. Needless to say I needed a patient, hence the Pumpkins, who suffered a simulated accident at the corner of 120 and Wilson. This controlled experiment used the following equipment and followed rigours standard principles.

• One car driven at normal speeds.
• A trustee well versed in emergency health care evacuations (Trustee Dale Multerer).
• My camera which was used every two minutes to capture a picture of where we were for verification purposes.
• A stop watch.
• Two flat pumpkins.

Some observations, I did this before school let out and before rush hour started to make sure I got literally the best possible conditions for getting to a hospital quickly. If this were a true emergency the ambulance would move quicker, (however we only stopped at 4 of the 17 lights we would have hit). Conversely the pumpkins were lucky that the Mayor and a highly skilled trustee happened to notice them, because it would take 2-4 minutes for paramedics to arrive.


At 1:32 Dale and I noticed Mr Pumpkin and his companion who seemed to be in some form of distress. So we decided to transport them to Libertyville and Condell which is only 19 minutes away!



At 1:35 we secured the Pumpkins safely in the back of the car.


This was the scene that confronted us as we attempted to rush the pumpkins to emergency medical care only 19 minutes away. We pulled away at 1:36 exactly! Knowing we would have the pumpkins safe and sound with top medical professionals at 1:55.


At 1:42 we were going down Route 60 at Turks, glancing back at the pumpkins they seemed somewhat orange in complexion but they assured me that was normal.


At 1:44 we were waiting behind these commuters at 60 and Peterson Road, no idea what they were doing on a Tuesday afternoon, but a good shot anyway.


At 1:46 we were nearing the train tracks at Peterson and 45, where thankfully we did not get caught by a train. We crossed the train lines 2 times in our trip to the hospital. Elapsed time to this point 10 minutes!


Here we are at 1:50 waiting for the light at 137 and Butterfield, in the right of the picture you can see my Tom Tom which seemed more logical with travel times.


At 1:52 we heard moaning from the back seat as we drove down 137 just West of the Libertyville city limits! Elapsed time to this moment is 16 minutes.


Here we are at 2:00 pm on Milwaukee (Route 21 in Libertyville). Elapsed time 24 minutes and some highly distressed pumpkins in the back seat!


Ok here we are at last, at 2:04, 28 minutes later


But wait there is a 2 minute drive to actually get to the entrance to the emergency room. Plus the signs are confusing!

Unfortunately when we arrived we were turned away because the Pumpkins had Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance and could not be treated at Condell.

PLEASE NOTE: No pumpkins were harmed during this experiment in sarcasm.

It only takes 16 minutes to get to a hospital! Or does it take years?

NOTE: This was the post I was going to write today, but late yesterday, the Illinois Hospital Facility Board denied both Vista and Advocate the ability to build a hospital in Western Lake county. Advocate management is still committed to the process and the freestanding facility they are proposing will be before the Planning and Zoning Commission at the end of the month. I will write more about this shortly. But I can't tell you how disappointed I am by how poorly the State manages this process. Here is a link to the Daily Herald article in todays paper.

This article was in Mondays Daily Herald and I think it goes to show you how nuts the process is for attracting a hospital. The Illinois Hospital Facility board uses Mapquest to determine traffic times and clearly has never driven the 45-60 minutes to the nearest hospital.

If you live in Lindenhurst or Round Lake, how far is it to the nearest hospital?

If you believe the state's findings, there's a hospital a mere 16 minutes from Round Lake and another just 19 minutes from Lindenhurst.

Lake County Board Chairwoman Suzi Schmidt said the findings are outrageous, especially given traffic congestion on Lake County roads.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board examined travel times as part of its study of two hospital proposals -- Vista Medical Center's in Lindenhurst and Advocate Health Care's in Round Lake. They admit their method of measurement isn't perfect, but they still use it to help decide if a new health-care facility is needed.

State officials use MapQuest, a Web site that provides driving directions and maps, to determine the distance between facilities and travel time. In the case of the two Lake County proposals on the table, the data shows neither is needed.

"This has been a very difficult thing for a long time," said Jeffrey Mark, executive secretary for the planning board. "The board has used this system for many, many years, but the problem is, travel times is never clearly defined."

The Daily Herald conducted an unscientific study to determine drive-times to the three closest hospitals to Lindenhurst and Round Lake. Daily Herald staffers followed the same MapQuest routes cited by the state, in nonrush hour and rush hour traffic.

Only once did our findings match the state's; the rest of the trips were longer.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the health facilities planning board will vote on the Lindenhurst and Round Lake hospital proposals.

It will take into account several factors, including travel times to other hospitals and a current excess of 209 hospital beds in the area. The meeting is in Springfield.

Mark said 30 minutes is a benchmark the state sees as a reasonable time to drive for an elective hospital procedure.

Vista wants to build a 140-bed hospital near Deep Lake Road and Route 132. According to the state, Condell Medical Center in Libertyville is 19 minutes from that location; Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan is 20 minutes away; and Lake Forest Hospital is 22 minutes away.

Advocate wants to build a 144-bed hospital at Route 120 and Wilson Road. The three closest hospitals to that site, according to the state, are Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry at 16 minutes; Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital near Lake Barrington at 16 minutes; and Condell at 19 minutes.

In our survey, all the drive times but one -- a nonrush hour trip from Round Lake to Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry -- were three to 22 minutes longer than the MapQuest estimate.

The longest trip was from Lindenhurst to Lake Forest Hospital in nonrush hour traffic. At 44 minutes, it was double the state's 22-minute estimate. The delay was due to ongoing construction on Interstate 94.

Mark said because of issues such as construction and traffic congestion, the board plans to factor in extra time to the MapQuest estimations.

The board decided last month to multiply travel times by 1.25 within the city of Chicago and 1.15 in the suburbs and selected cities such as Rockford, Peoria and Springfield, Mark said.

"We acknowledge this is an issue and travel times vary by day of the week, time of the year and construction," Mark said. "We've tried to address it. And we would also like to be relatively fair."

The change was not made in time for the state reports on the Vista and Advocate proposals.

That means the 22-minute trip from Lindenhurst to Lake Forest Hospital would be increased to just more than 25 minutes under the new guidelines.

That's still almost 19 minutes less than what the Daily Herald trip.

The state's studies were done from the communities where the hospitals would be built. The distance to existing hospitals from neighboring towns farther away, such as Fox Lake and Antioch, were not taken into account.

Advocate Hearing Today

One of the intermediate steps in the process for bringing a hospital to Round Lake begins today with a hearing in front of the Illinois Hospital Planning Board for Advocate's freestanding immediate care and emergency room.

Advocate recognizes the process is slow for the eventual approval of the hospital and wants to start serving the region and has filed for an intermediate step towards service in the area with an acute and free standing emergency center. What follows here is the text of my testimony in front of the board today at 10 am in the Round Lake Beach Civic Center off of Hook drive.

My name is Bill Gentes and I am the Mayor of Round Lake. I am here today to support Advocate’s application for an Advanced Immediate Care Center, as well as their plans to convert the facility into a Free Standing Emergency Center.

Since becoming Mayor, I have made my mission loud and clear—to increase access to health care in Northwest Lake County and Eastern McHenry County. I started this process by appointing a citizen-driven Hospital Task Force in 2006, which identified the health needs of our surrounding communities.

What they found is no surprise; there is a great need for better access to health care, and in particular, there is an urgent need for nearby access to care in an emergency. Building an Advanced Immediate Care Center and converting it into a Free Standing Emergency Facility is a first step to providing a critical level of service for our community in less than two years time.

A Free Standing Emergency Facility will provide more advanced services to the community, particularly because the facility will be staffed by board certified emergency medicine physicians twenty-four hours a day. As a father of a teenage daughter, I take personal concern for her safety behind the wheel. To know that, if she or a friend happened to have an accident and emergency doctors were close by, it might help me sleep a little better at night.

In all seriousness, this is a great concern to most parents and families I know—realizing that our children might not get the care they need soon enough because an ambulance is stuck in traffic on a long drive to a hospital too many miles away—that’s one worry that should not keep us up at night.

Another major concern that this project will address is that Emergency Departments are overcrowded and wait times to see doctors are increasing. This is not just a Lake County problem---this is a national problem. A recent study evaluated the change in wait times to see an ED physician from 1997 to 2004. During this time period, ED visits increased from 93.4 million to 110.2 million annually, while the number of ED’s fell by as much as 12.4 percent.

In this same time period, the wait time to see an ED physician increased from a median of twenty-two minutes in 1997 to thirty minutes by 2004. Further, patients triaged as “emergent” had median wait times that increased from ten minutes in 1997 to fourteen minutes in 2004.

I applaud the State of Illinois for recognizing this growing epidemic by creating legislation to allow the construction of Free-Standing Emergency Facilities. This allows health care organizations such as Advocate another opportunity to meet the health needs of underserved communities, and the opportunity to help do something about growing wait times in emergency departments.

It’s also easy to see that a medical campus will provide jobs and health security to our neighbors, but an Advocate presence means a commitment to the community, and a commitment to the highest quality of care.

Every citizen in Northwest Lake County and Eastern McHenry county deserves excellent medical care, long-term commitment to the community, and a mission to serve those most in need. I am confident that Advocate can provide this.

I respectfully urge the Planning Board to approve Advocate’s proposal for an Advanced Immediate Care Center, and hope you will also consider approving its conversion to a Free Standing Emergency Center at a later date.

Hospital News-- Hot off the wires!

Over the last week the hospital news has been flying fast and furrious! I am going to try to bring you up to speed on the developments and then talk about how this affects us.

• First Condell rejected an offer by Lake Forrest to buy Condell. This was big news right up until two days ago when Condell rejected the overture.


• Then yesterday Advocate announced that they and Condell had agreed on a letter of intent for Advocate to merge with Condell.

Senior management of Advocate has been been quite forthcoming with me about developments as they happen for which I am grateful.

They have consistently reiterated there desire to me and the village's senior staff to build the hospital. I beleive them! Advocate's actions are consistent with this premise. They are applying to build a large out patient service center on the site at 120 and Wilson, which will likely be granted and Advocate anticipates breaking ground this summer as a precursor to the likely fall approval of the Hospital (fingers crossed).

Internally at the village Advocate's words match the actions, since we are seeing an urgency for the building process and in fact we have a public hearing for this portion of the hospital process scheduled for early March in front of the Illinois Hospital Facility Board.

While candidly the merger worries me, one central point remains, the need for service in western Lake County and eastern McHenry counties is growing. If Condell has approached us to build a hospital way back when we would have said that makes total sense! So the ownership issue of the Libertyville Condell campus really should not and I hope will not jeopardize the push to build a hospital here in Round Lake.

From Todays Daily Herald

This was in today's Daily Herald, another delay, how enjoyable! The picture is of the hearing a few months ago where 100's and 100's of people came to demand health care in western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County.

Lake County residents will likely have to wait four months to learn the fate of hospitals proposals in Lindenhurst and Round Lake.

The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which determines the need for and oversees construction of new hospitals and expansion projects, Tuesday deferred any decision until its January meeting. The board will likely defer both plans again at each monthly meeting until April, officials said.

New rules governing the way the need for patient beds is calculated will be published Dec. 14. Those rules must then go through a state approval process before becoming law.

"We are anticipating that these rules will be in effect sometime in March," said Jeffrey Mark, executive secretary of the facilities planning board.

It is unclear how those rules will affect either project.

Vista Health wants to build a 140-bed, $100 million hospital in Lindenhurst. Advocate Health Care's plan calls for a 144-bed, $251 million hospital in Round Lake.

There's likely room for only one to move forward. If either is approved, it would mean the first new hospital in Lake County in 30 years.

The planning board wanted to give both hospital groups time to digest the new rules and adjust projects accordingly.

Representatives of Vista and rival Advocate were pleased with the deferrals, as neither was ready for a decision Tuesday on their competing proposals.

"The new rules will only help the merit of our project," Vista CEO Barbara Martin said. "We're still in the game and we intend to have a successful project in the end."

Martin said the previous rules were more than 10 years old and not in step with today's standards.

In the previous legislative session, the facilities planning board was asked to revise how it calculates the need for services. It was asked to use 10-year population estimates and consider patient migration -- people receiving services at health-care facilities in a planning area other than where they live.

While the future of the hospital proposals hinges on the board's decision, none of the players would speculate how things will shake out.

Advocate spokeswoman Kelly Jo Golson said the new rules will provide a more accurate count of bed need.

"We are committed to the needs of the community, whatever form that takes," she said.

A 45-day public comment period and a public hearing will follow the Dec. 14 publication of the new rules in the Illinois Registry.

If the facilities planning board chooses, it can then make changes to the proposed rules, which still must be approved by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Mark said.

Taping of Comcast Newsmakers

Earlier this week I taped a Comcast Newsmakers show which is a daily five-minute interview segment which airs at :24 and :54 minutes past the hour on CNN Headline News sponsored by Comcast. It was a lot of fun and a nice opportunity to talk up your community and the issues surrounding it. The show is hosted by veteran, award winning news anchor Paul Lisnek. Who definitely made me feel good about the whole process.

Naturally I talked about three things, transportation, hospitals and economic development, with a little bit about this blog thrown in for good measure. The whole process was quite efficent and the 5 minutes went by quickly as well.

Many thanks to Gwendolyn McNutt, Comcast Community Affairs Manager, Paul Lisnek for making me feel comfortable and Frank Deuel, Comcast Government Affairs Manager for being helpful as well.

I am not sure when they air, but when I find out I will let you all know! You get to some fun things as a Mayor and this was certainly one of them!

Condell Out of Network

As if we don't need some way to address health care in this area and the state. I have gotten at least 10 emails with the recurrent theme of "Condell is now out of my network for health insurance"

Here is a sample of the language from one email:

Effective October 1, 2007, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois has announced that they will terminate their affiliation with Condell Hospital in Libertyville. If you have a medical emergency and Condell is the closest hospital, you can still go there for treatment, however, Condell will no longer be a BlueCross Clue Shield Provider. Also, Condell’s affiliated medical groups will terminate on January 1, 2008. Please contact BlueCross BlueShield customer service to verify your coverage.

I think back to when we held our public hearing about Advocate a few months ago and the kind hearted CEO from Condell came up and testified that we don't need a hospital because we are so close to the kind, loving Condell network hospital in Libertyville. Well the nearest hospital for these folks just got a long way away!

Advocate Update

Hey recall yesterday's post about the bus and the hearing? Well since the Illinois Health facilities board has only 4 members with 1 vacancy, on the 5 person board, and were unable to muster a quorum of 3 on Tuesday so they canceled the hearing!

Which is fine and dandy because there is clearly no need for health care up here in Western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County. Amazing, thats all I will say!

So if you recall yesterday's post do your best to forget about it!

Advocate Hearing is Tuesday! Free Bus to the Hearing!

The folks at Advocate asked me to pass along this information to you.

Thank you for your continued support of Advocate Health Care’s proposal to construct a full service hospital for the people of northwest Lake County. At the public hearing held in June, you gave us a clear indication that the community understands the need for increased access to care in a region with diverse health care needs and rapid population growth.

On August 28, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board (IHFPB) will evaluate our full proposal for the first time, as well as a State Agency Report, which is a report from the Board’s staff evaluating our application. When they review our application, they will also read your comments in transcripts from the public hearing and hundreds of letters of support

At the August IHFPB meeting, we will either receive a decision on the application or be asked to submit further information to address any of the Planning Board Members’ questions or concerns. We will be prepared to respond to the Board Members’ requests, and we want to assure you that we are still confident that we are the best organization to respond to the health care needs of Lake County residents.

Advocate will soon receive our State Agency Report from the IHFPB. This report is produced to inform both the IHFPB and Advocate where there may be issues with our proposed project. Because the IHFPB has not yet revised the rules that determine “need” in planning regions, we may receive some negative comments that are simply reflective of the unrevised and out-of-date rules. Though there will be no opportunity for public comment during the IHFPB meeting on August 28, we still encourage community members to attend to support Advocate’s proposal while also learning more about how the planning board process works. Community support will continue to be crucial as we move forward in this process.

The meeting will be held at Harold Washington College in Chicago at 9 a.m. on August 28. We estimate that Advocate will be on the agenda late in the morning. Please check the Round Lake Chamber web site at http://www.rlchamber.org for detailed information closer to the date.

Advocate will provide free charter bus transportation from the Village of Round Lake Civic & Cultural Center in Round Lake Beach to Harold Washington College for those who would like to attend the hearing. The bus will depart from Round Lake Beach promptly at 8 a.m. on Tuesday morning and return between 5 and 6 p.m. that evening. Space is limited so please contact April Green at 630-990-5124 or april.green@advocatehealth.com to reserve your seat.

Again, thank you for your continued support. We sincerely hope that our proposal will be approved, and in part because of the unwavering commitment we have received from community members like you.

Hospital News from the Waukegan News Sun

This article appeared the Waukegan News Sun over the weekend written by Dan Moran. The actual report mentioned in the article can be downloaded here.

I think its instructive to see in a report, what we already know, its much easier to get to another Hospital from Lindenhurst. You have a 4 lane highway that takes you to the interstate in minutes or to state route 45 in seconds to get you moving to one.

Out here in Round Lake, its not that easy as we all know! The 45 minute drive for a Lindenhurst resident to the other hospitals mentioned in the report will be 60-75 minutes for residents in western lake county, which means Round Lake is a better site for the hospital.

WAUKEGAN -- The stars appeared to be lining up Friday against Vista Health's proposal to build a hospital in Lindenhurst with the release of a state report determining that the project "does not appear to be in conformance" with several key requirements.

A 42-page staff report from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which is scheduled to meet July 24-25 in Chicago to review the Vista proposal, basically states that the 140-bed hospital proposed at Grand Avenue and Deep Lake Road would be too close to current hospitals to demonstrate a need for construction.

"There are 15 hospitals located within 45 minutes travel time which provide medical/surgical and intensive care unit services, and 12 hospitals providing obstetric service," the report states, adding that this represents "a computed excess of (services) and facilities" in the targeted area.

Among the hospitals listed as within 45 minutes of travel time were Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, Highland Park Hospital, Lake Forest Hospital and Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan. Also on the list are hospitals in Park Ridge, Schaumburg and Woodstock, along with the northwest side of Chicago.

The report added that several criteria must be met before a Certificate of Need can be issued for construction, including documentation "that travel times to existing providers is excessive (exceeding 45 minutes) ... Since none of the requirements for the criterion are met, a positive finding cannot be made."

The report also scrutinized the need to add 140 beds to the area's health-care roster, saying that Vista "(has) not adequately documented that the proposed new hospital is needed to serve an underserved population, (so) it does not appear that the project is the most effective or least costly alternative for meeting health- care needs in the area."

Attempts to reach Vista Health officials for comment late Friday afternoon, when the report was first available, were not successful.

Vista officials and backers of the project -- expected to cost $99.8 million -- have said travel times to existing facilities were dangerously high for residents in northern Lake County. When the Certificate of Need was applied for in March, Vista CEO Barbara Martin said, "There is an urgent need for a hospital in that area."

However, at a public hearing before the Health Facilities board in May, officials at several regional hospitals -- including Condell, Lake Forest and Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry -- argued that a Lindenhurst hospital would infringe on their "primary care zone."

Jodi Levine, Condell's vice president of marketing and business development, reiterated those sentiments after reading the state report late Friday.

"Lake County has a crying need for more advanced specialty services, not simply more hospital beds," Levine said in a statement. "A new hospital would completely undercut efforts to bring in Level I Trauma care, advanced cancer and neo-natal care or other high-level services. The staff has followed state rules, which are in place to protect health-care decisions from becoming political."

It remains to be seen what the board will do with the report's findings when it meets in 10 days, and what the findings might mean to Advocate Health System's competing proposal to build a hospital in Round Lake at Route 120 and Wilson Road.

My Advocate Testimony Yesterday!

Yesterday was a big day, the state board that will decide on a certificate of need for Advocate Healthcare's proposed hospital was in town taking testimony on the why Round Lake will be a great site for the hospital!

There is some nice coverage from the Daily Herald, News Sun and the Round Lake Journal in the papers.

While all the experts and health care providers were debating the merits of which hospital should be built, the real world intruded and this is what happened. There was an accident in Grayslake, and there was an accident in Fox Lake as well and there was someone airlifted to Advocate Lutheran General from Grayslake. Kind of ironic, especially since this type of traffic issue, was going on all day, I would hope the persons transported by ambulance were okay in Lake County Traffic.

Along with a host of others, I testified. What follows below is a transcript of my testimony that I will give yesterday at the Round Lake Beach Civic Center.

My name is Bill Gentes and I serve as the Mayor of Round Lake.

Round Lake is proud to be the potential home of Advocate’s proposed hospital. Our residents are united as one towards achieving this goal.

Last year in a speech to the Round Lake Chamber of Commerce, I made a loud call for a hospital in western Lake County. I appointed a citizen-driven Hospital Task Force to identify and address the needs of our surrounding communities and attempt to attract a hospital to our region.

What this Task Force found was no surprise. There was an urgent need—not just from Round Lake—but from concerned citizens of the Round Lake area and well beyond—that they will not take their health needs lightly.

I stand today in support of Advocate with my fellow mayors from Fox Lake,
Hainesville, Lake Zurich, Old Mill Creek, Round Lake Beach, Round Lake Heights, Round Lake Park, Island Lake, Third Lake, Volo and Wauconda, who like me, recognize the significant lack of health care within reasonable reach of our communities. Each Village submitted a formal resolution to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board stating this need.

We also recognize the lack of nearby healthcare will only get worse as each of our communities continues to grow. These communities currently represent over 130,000 people and that does not include the nearly 30,000 who live in unincorporated areas adjacent to these communities.

Western Lake County and Eastern McHenry County struggle with a significant lack of transportation infrastructure. Getting to a hospital is hard and getting harder. This village is pushing big projects that will solve big problems, the Route 120 bypass - is one of them - which will end on Round Lake’s and Advocates front door step and will give Lake and McHenry County desperately needed traffic relief, and make access to a Advocate’s Lake County Hospital easy from all compass points via Route 120, Route 60, and US Route 12

I am thrilled that Advocate wants to make this substantial investment in my community. The economic impact of a new hospital is significant: it means more jobs, supply and equipment purchases, construction work and support to local business.

Let me be clear what this hospital can and will do for this region. Coupled with Baxter Healthcare’s adjacent technology campus, which employees 2,300 people, we would be creating one of the largest clusters of healthcare jobs in the Chicagoland area. Over 1,000 directly related new jobs will be created in the surrounding communities.

It’s easy to see that a hospital will provide jobs and health security to our neighbors, but building an Advocate hospital means much more – commitment to our communities. Advocate hospitals have been serving Chicagoland for over 100 years, and I am confident they are here to stay for the next 100 years. Why am I confident? Because as a not for profit system, Advocate is a mission driven organization dedicated to serving communities.

We all know that there is a for-profit provider touting a competitive hospital proposal that will offer property tax benefit. In my opinion, all that Advocate brings in community benefit and charity care far outweighs any property tax contribution we could imagine. In fact, the Advocate system dedicates roughly a quarter-billion dollars or so annually in community programs and services throughout Chicago and the suburbs.

The Village of Round Lake supports Advocate Health Care’s plans to build a hospital in western Lake County.

I respectfully ask the Illinois Health Facilities Board to do the same. Thank you.

Here's how you can support Advocate Tommorrow!

Today, I spoke to officials at Advocate Health Care to find out how I can get more of you to be able to comment at the hearing tomorrow. They stated that you do not need to speak at the public hearing tomorrow in order to submit a statement of support. Many of you have articulated to me that although you support Advocate’s proposal, you cannot attend the hearing tomorrow.

I have attached a letter of support has attached a generic letter of support that our members can sign and fax back to the village hall.

The Village Hall fax is 847-546-5405

I will take your letters of support with me tomorrow and see that they are recorded. So you need to get them to us by noon so we can get them over there.

As a word document (two versions)

General_Advocate.doc

Community_day%20of_template.doc

Or copy and paste it into a letter.

June 5, 2007
RE: Advocate-Lake County Hospital

Public Hearing Testimony

Project No. 07-053

To Whom It May Concern:

I support Advocate Health Care’s initiative to construct a hospital in Round Lake, Illinois.

The construction of a hospital in Round Lake would be a huge economic boon for my community, create thousands of jobs, and most importantly, improve the quality of life for residents and workers in the area.

Western Lake County is in dire need of more accessible hospital-based medical facilities and Advocate Health Care’s proposal will bring these much needed facilities to the residents. The Round Lake Area has the highest population concentration in western Lake County with 60,000+ residents. The population alone makes Round Lake the most logical geographic area to build a hospital.

I respectfully urge the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board to approve Advocate Health Care’s proposal to build a hospital in northwest Lake County.

Best regards,

BREAKING NEWS-- Voting for a Hospital--- Lets all get involved!

I was reading the papers online this morning and I saw this online poll from our friends at the Lakeland Journal.

An online poll asking opinions between Vista and Advocate!

Imagine my suprise! I voted instantly! I think we all should express our opinions, after all this is America!

Advocate Hospital Hearing is June 5

I got this from the folks at Advocate who wanted me to help them get the word out for them.

Advocate Health Care requests the presence of citizens of Lake County at a Public Hearing to be held on Tuesday, June 5, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. at the Village of Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center, 2007 Civic Center Way, Round Lake Beach, Illinois.

The Public Hearing will allow citizens to learn more about and provide feedback on the proposed Advocate – Lake County Hospital and the economic development it will bring to the community.

If approved by the Illnios Health Facilities Planning Board, the 144 bed acute care hospital will be located southwest corner of Illinois Route 120 and Wilson Road in unincorporated Lake County, Illinois.

“As a health care system with some of the best clinical outcomes and service in Illinois, we are confident we know how to deliver outstanding care,' said Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate. 'The people of Lake County, however, know what their community needs. We need their input to do this right.' "Please, let us know your feedback and attend the hearing to learn more about Advocate - Lake County Hospital."

Advocate Hospital Hearing is June 5

There will a public hearing on the potential Advocate Hospital in Round Lake at the Round Lake Beach Civic Center on June 5th. I will have more details as they become available. A variety of people will be able to testify about the need for a hospital in Western Lake County, I certainly will be doing so.

Interesting Article in Crains on Hospital Board

There was an interesting article in Crains Chicago Business about the Illinois Hospital Board.

Good synopsis of the issues and challenges facing potential hospitals. The link is here.

Advocate has a New Website for the Hospital

Advocate sent me a link to the new website for the hospital. I have been working the phones recently talking to other taxing bodies and building support for the Advocate proposal.
If the hospital is run as professionally as the management team I have been dealing with, North West Lake County is in for exceptional service! I am fired up!

Hospital Foresight from Crains Chicago Business

NOTE: This article appeared in Crain's Chicago Business in late September of 2006, and as I reread it last night and thought it might be an excellent post with some good background. Again, recall this was before the Round Lake/Advocate announcement.

Hospitals racing for edge in Lake

Rival systems map plans for growing western area

Lake County has emerged as the latest battleground for health systems vying to build a hospital in the suburbs.

Advocate Health Care executives have met with officials from Round Lake to discuss constructing a hospital in the western Lake County community, about 14 miles west of Waukegan, according to a person close to the talks. The village expects to buy a 57-acre tract on its southwest border for nearly $6 million, which it would then annex and lease to Advocate, the source says.

About eight miles to the northeast, in Lindenhurst, Vista Health of Waukegan wants to build a 150-bed hospital with an infusion of new cash from Tennessee-based Community Health Systems Inc., a for-profit hospital operator that acquired Vista Health in July for $103 million. Vista, which runs two Waukegan hospitals, already owns land in Lindenhurst. Officials expect to submit plans to the state this year for a new hospital.

A spokeswoman for Oak Brook-based Advocate won't confirm the Round Lake discussions, but says, "We're always evaluating opportunities (in Lake County) because it is an area of high-growth potential and there is a need there."

EXPANDING, AFFLUENT AREAS

Meanwhile, Condell Health Network in Libertyville got state approval in July for a $104-million expansion that will add 90 beds to its medical center, giving it a total of 214. It's also expanding its emergency department to become Lake County's only Level One trauma center, which will enable it to accept the most severely injured patients.

The health systems are competing to accommodate the region's growth. Lake County's population surged 36% from 1990 through last year, to more than 700,000 residents. And the target communities are more affluent than other parts of the county: The median household incomes for Round Lake and Lindenhurst in 2000 were $58,051 and $74,841 respectively, vs. $42,335 for Waukegan.

But it's uncertain whether the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board would okay two new hospitals in such close proximity. Major investments in medical facilities must get approval from the board, which is charged with controlling health care costs by preventing overlapping services.

In the last 30 years, the board has approved just one new hospital in a location where one did not already exist: a 138-bed facility in southwest suburban Bolingbrook, now being built by Hinsdale's Adventist Midwest Health. In June, the board denied a proposal by Edward Hospital for a new facility eight miles from the Bolingbrook location, citing the proximity.

WATCHING FOR OVERLAP

"If one project is approved, the board would have to assess the need for a second project and determine if there would be any unnecessary duplication of services," says Mark Silberman, a Chicago health care attorney and former Planning Board general counsel.

Representatives for both Vista and Condell decline to comment on Advocate's interest, saying the Planning Board ultimately would determine the need for more hospital services in the area.

Lindenhurst Mayor Jim Betustak knows a nearby Advocate project would represent direct competition for Vista's plans, which he has backed for years. But he believes Vista has the inside track.

"They own the land and they're sitting there ready to go," he says. "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you ask me."

First Look at the Proposed Advocate Healthcare Project

I got some fact sheets from Advocate Health Care and there are some interesting facts in the flyer which I am listing below.

As the largest provider of high quality health care in the Chicago area, Advocate Health Care seeks approval to build a comprehensive, state-of-the-art hospital designed to meet the needs of rapidly growing northwest Lake County. The new hospital will complement the wide range of health care services Advocate already provides to the region.
Some of the Services

• Advocate Hospital-Lake County is designed to meet community expectations for access to vital, high quality health care. The hospital will include 144 single rooms to enhance patient safety, privacy and comfort.
• The hospital will have 108 medical-surgical beds, a 16-bed intensive care unit and 20 obstetrical beds. The obstetrical service also will include six labor/delivery-recovery rooms and a Level II newborn nursery.
• The hospital is designed to include a Level II trauma center, providing immediate access to emergency services for seriously injured patients, 24 hours a day, every day.
• All medical-surgical and obstetric patient rooms will be large enough to allow overnight accommodation of a family member or loved one. A separate family room for overnight stay will be included on the intensive care unit.
• Other hospital services will include eight surgery and procedure suites, cardiology, pediatrics and a full array of diagnostic imaging services.
• Designed as an environmentally sensitive “green” building, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification will be sought for the hospital from the U.S. Green Building Council.

Mayors Speech Today at the Chamber of Commerce

Today is the Annual Mayors Speech at the Round Lake Area Chamber of Commerce. I have used this forum in the past to talk about the big picture needs of this area. Some of my topics that I spoke about have been the need for jobs in the area, the pressing need for transportation improvement, Downtown development, the 120 Bypass and of course lasts years call for a hospital in Northwest Lake County.

The themes of my speeches has basically outlined my big goals for my administration, and this year will be no different. I am going to talk about how our demographics have changed, give a status report on the 120 bypass, talk about Advocate Health Care, my wellness and community programs, and lastly our 100th Anniversary celebrations. The biggest part of the talk will be about how Advocate Health Care will bring positives to the area.

Tomorrow I will make a copy of my speech available in power point, and I also think that radio station WRLR will be broadcasting the Mayors speeches on tape delay, and I will find out the time.

Hospital Poll

Please answer responsibly, I set it so there is one to a customer or should I say patient!

What Hospital Do You Use?
	Condell
	Good Shepard
	Highland Park
	Lake Forest
	Northern Illinois Medical Center
	Northwest Community
	Vista
	Other
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Hospitals Benefits for the Community

One of the most exciting things about the future Hospital here in Round Lake is the big bang it will give us economically. While the hospital itself will not generate significant sales tax or property value what it will do is energize the surrounding area in a variety of ways.

• Jobs-- High quality, white and blue collar jobs, inside the hospital, along with jobs outside the hospital. For every one job in the hospital, there are two jobs generated outside the hospital. Estimates put the amount of hospital employees at between 1,000 and 1,500, which means the project will add between to 3,000 to 4,500 jobs to the Round Lake Area economy.
  
• High Quality Accessible Health Care-- No more 30-35 minute drives to a hospital award winning health care is 3-5 minutes away.
  

The American Hospital Association has an excellent 8 page brochure where I got most of these facts, here is the link to the PDF. (econ_contr_of_hospitals.pdf)