Latest news with #ManojPrasad
CBS News
2 days ago
- Health
- CBS News
Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago closes emergency department
Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown has officially closed its emergency department on Friday morning. The announcement comes as Weiss is set to lose access to Medicare and Medicaid this weekend. CEO Dr. Manoj Prasad confirmed that only outpatient services will continue, but surgeries and the emergency department have been shut down. He defended his management of this hospital, as many community members and leaders are blaming him for the closure. "So they finally, very kindly agreed to say, Okay, put your license on board that emergency department was hardly seeing any patients now, because there was no, no way to admit them and take care of them," he said. So they asked for a date, and we said, okay, let's close it down today, and it has been closed down, and they are holding the hospital license in hold. There is some technical term for it, till such time that we reapply or we file the appeal for CMS reconsideration, or do a new application, and then that will come back on." Dr. Manoj Prasad said the closure was connected to some issues discovered by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid surveyors having to do with recent complaints at the hospital. There have been reports of mistreatment and unclean facilities. The Illinois Department of Public Health has investigated those claims at least seven times. He recognized that it is, of course, a huge blow to the roughly 700 employees here and the large community of patients they serve. He said they plan to appeal the hold on their hospital license, but that process will likely take eight to 12 months. Dr. Prasad spoke from Oak Park, where he cautioned that another Resilience Healthcare facility, West Suburban Medical Center, could soon face the same fate as Weiss. Meanwhile, in Uptown, patients, employees, and community leaders rallied in front of the vacant emergency department—calling for help from the federal government. "It is criminal to not provide a healthy working environment for healthcare workers, so that they can do their jobs to do no harm so that they can take care of the people who are most vulnerable," Ald. Leni Manaa-Hoppenworth (48th Ward) said. ER tech at Weiss Hospital, Alaa Alkhati, echoes the shame emotion and said he will have to look for a new job. "It's a shame to be closing down a hospital that has so many amazing people working in it," he said. "I'm going to have to look for a new job, like many of us are, but there are only so many of these jobs near here." The group that rallied here is asking for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to grant an eight-week extension for this Emergency Department to stay open. There is no word from CMS on whether that could happen. The video above is from an earlier report.
Chicago Tribune
3 days ago
- Health
- Chicago Tribune
Concerns swirl about potential closure of Weiss hospital, which will lose Medicare funding this weekend
With just days to go before Weiss Memorial Hospital was scheduled to lose Medicare funding, concerns swirled Thursday about whether the hospital was about to close. Dr. Manoj Prasad, the head of the company that owns the hospital, and other hospital officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday. But three hospital staffers, who asked to remain unnamed, told the Tribune that they'd been told the hospital would close at 7 a.m. Friday. The Uptown hospital's hallways were mostly empty Thursday morning. The emergency waiting room was deserted, and some of the offices and waiting rooms had signs reading 'permanently closed.' A white folding table at the entrance of Weiss held four flyers with instructions for patients about how to get medical records, ask billing questions and find their doctors at other locations. A man wearing scrubs walked through a hospital entrance Thursday morning carrying cardboard boxes. 'It's devastating,' said Marianne Lalonde, an Uptown resident and past president of the Lakeside Area Neighbors Association, of the possible closure. 'It serves a population that is really in need. I think people are really going to struggle to find care and especially more vulnerable populations are going to struggle.' Worries about closure follow news last month that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services planned to terminate Weiss from the Medicare program Aug. 9, which is this Saturday. The federal agency issued a public notice, at the time, saying that the Uptown hospital would lose its ability to participate in Medicare because it was out of compliance with rules related to nursing services, physical environment and emergency services. The notice did not elaborate on specific problems, but it came after the Illinois Department of Public Health conducted an on-site investigation at the hospital in June in response to complaints of high temperatures after air conditioning equipment at the facility failed, according to a state health department memo obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The state health department found temperatures as high as nearly 89 degrees in the hospital's intensive care unit and nearly 87 degrees in the emergency department, according to the memo. At the time, the hospital moved all of its inpatients to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and other hospitals because of the heat, according to a previous news release from the hospital. The air conditioning was supposed to be fixed by the end of June, according to the state memo. The air conditioning appeared to be working again Thursday, at least in parts of the hospital. The state health department said in a statement Thursday that no patients were currently housed at Weiss. The department said it was continuing 'to monitor developments around the status of Weiss Memorial Hospital.' The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services confirmed Thursday that if the hospital loses Medicare funding, it will also lose Medicaid dollars, under federal regulations and state law. It would be difficult for any hospital to keep its doors open without Medicare and Medicaid funding, and especially so for Weiss. In 2023 about 88% of Weiss' inpatients and nearly 67% of its outpatients were on Medicare or Medicaid, according to the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. This week, a number of local elected officials and community organizations wrote a letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services asking for an eight-week extension and a reevaluation of conditions at Weiss before the hospital's Medicare participation is terminated to give the hospital more time to become compliant with the agency's standards. 'Our communities stand to lose not only a critical healthcare provider, but also a key employer and stabilizing force in the Uptown neighborhood,' they wrote in the letter. Signers included Ald. Angela Clay, 46th; Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago; Rep. Hoan Huynh, D-Chicago; and Sen. Mike Simmons, D-Chicago, among many others. The elected officials said in the letter that they've convened emergency meetings with leaders at Weiss, the state and city health departments and officials from the mayor's office, among others, to help find solutions. 'It's been a critical safety net hospital for working families and seniors and communities of color, immigrants and refugees, and so we want to make sure that this hospital is here to stay,' Huynh told the Tribune. Ruth Castillo, with the Lakeside Area Neighbors Association, said that if the hospital closed, it would be 'heartbreaking.' 'It's such an important resource for the community,' she said. 'There are so many neighbors that are on Medicare and Medicaid. They won't have a resource (that's) walking distance or a short bus ride away.' She said, however, she thought years ago that something like this might happen. The hospital has gone through a series of ownership changes in recent years. A previous owner, California-based Pipeline Health, agreed several years ago to sell a Weiss parking lot to a developer, angering community members who worried, in part, that it was the beginning of the end for Weiss. 'A hospital that has a future plan is not going to sell the last bit of land that it has to develop,' Castillo said. Pipeline later sold Weiss and West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park to a new company called Resilience Healthcare led by Prasad, who touted, at the time, his ability to turn around struggling hospitals. 'Over the past 30 years I've had the privilege of leading numerous health care organizations and have rescued a number of challenged facilities,' Prasad told the Health Facilities and Services Review Board in 2022 as he sought to buy Weiss and West Suburban. WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times first reported news of the hospital's potential closure.
Indian Express
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
Pakistan flag, army chief posters stuck on floor of Jharkhand HC premises, Registrar General says looking into it
Posters bearing the Pakistan national flag and a photograph of the country's Army chief were found placed on the floor inside and outside the premises of the Jharkhand High Court, including inside a washroom. Manoj Prasad, the Registrar General of Jharkhand High Court, said he was unaware of the development. 'I don't have information at present. I will look into it as soon as possible,' he said. According to sources, during lunchtime, an individual or individuals who are yet to be identified allegedly stuck the posters at several locations on the court premises, including the entrance, halls 1 and 2, and a washroom. The development comes days after the Pahalgam terror attack and worsening diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan. No formal inquiry has been initiated so far, but officials said they are trying to ascertain whether someone associated with the High Court is responsible for the act. President of the Jharkhand High Court Advocates' Association, Ritu Kumar, confirmed the incident. 'Yes, it happened within the High Court premises. However, the matter falls under the jurisdiction of the High Court administration, not the Lawyers' Association,' she said.
