Latest news with #WeissMemorialHospital
CBS News
10 hours ago
- Health
- CBS News
Air conditioning at Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospital could take weeks to fix
Administrators at Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospital spoke for the first time Wednesday after busted air conditioners forced patients to be transferred for their own safety. It could be weeks until the hospital in the Uptown neighborhood admits patients again. Imagine being at a hospital for medical care and the temperature inside soars to 92 degrees. That is exactly what happened to patients at Weiss Memorial Hospital, at 4646 N. Marine Dr. near Chicago's lakefront, on Monday. The sweltering conditions reached the point where the hospital had to shut down inpatient care and evacuate 45 patients. It got so hot at Weiss this week that every single patient in the facility had to be discharged or moved to their sister hospital, West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park. Andrea Saviozzi, executive director of nursing and clinical services at Weiss, said no patient care situations were affected — and the hospital was not evacuated in the middle of procedures such as surgical operations. "We canceled our surgeries for the day," Saviozzi said. "We stopped admitted patients on Monday." Since Weiss could not meet the mandated requirement of an inside temperature of 86 degrees or less, officials there had to shut down all inpatient care. "We are an acute care hospital, so we have an intensive care unit. We have an operating room, general medical floor, an inpatient psych unit — so we have all different types," Saviozzi said. "Our population generally is more older population." HVAC crews have been working nonstop to try to repair the cooling system at Weiss Memorial Hospital, which officials said should have been replaced decades ago. "This whole repair is going to cost us somewhere in the quarter of a million dollar range — money that we really, a safety net hospital, usually doesn't really have," said Weiss chief executive officer Dr. Monoj Pressad. Pressad said the hospital that Weiss is losing several million more dollars a day from not being able to bill for patient care, and that the repairs will be temporary — because the hospital needs a complete overhaul with an entire new HVAC system. "They started springing leaks, they would trip — so that has to be repaired," Pressad said. Pressad said a previous owner of Weiss kicked the can down the road when it came to maintenance and upgrades. "We have people here who have been here for 30, 40 years. They have noticed it," he said. "It has been going on for a long time, and there wasn't much investment done in that area." The hospital said only one of its four air conditioning systems is working. It still has cooling in the ER, and is still accepting people who walk into the ER — but those people are quickly being transferred to other facilities once they are stabilized. Officials say it could take weeks to get the system back up and running, because it is difficult to find replacement parts.
The Independent
18 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Chicago hospital evacuated over ‘catastrophic' loss of air conditioning causing ‘oven-like' conditions
A Chicago hospital was evacuated over a 'catastrophic' loss of air conditioning that left the inside of the medical center feeling 'like an oven,' according to a report. Weiss Memorial Hospital, in the city's Uptown neighborhood, said its aging air conditioning infrastructure had not been properly maintained by its previous owners, causing a 'catastrophic loss of the air conditioning system,' ABC 7 reported. Hospital officials said the needed repairs will take several days, as temperatures are expected to continue to rise over the weekend. It was not immediately clear what caused the outage, but hospital management said repairs would take a long time due to the 'aging infrastructure' of the current AC system. The hospital said 60 of its patients had been transported to other area hospitals in the meantime. No patients remained in the hospital's care as of Tuesday night. One patient who was discharged described the steamy conditions inside the building. 'To be honest, it's like an oven. The only thing is, they got a machine like this for air, but it's for the hallways only. But inside the rooms? No air. Just wind blowing out of the vent,' the patient, Steven Acosta, said. Hospital staff told NBC Chicago that the center primarily serves geriatric patients between the ages of 80 to 100, for whom the heat was unbearable. 'Today was literally the worst,' one employee said. 'They literally evacuated all inpatients and ERs.' Weiss Memorial Hospital said its outpatient areas and other areas not impacted will remain open. The hospital's emergency room is redirecting ambulances, but will stay open for any walk-in patients. Once repairs are complete, the hospital will need to be cooled to a certain temperature before it's allowed to be reopened, management said. A spokesperson said one chiller was back online late Tuesday to provide some relief, but all of the others remained non-operational.
CBS News
a day ago
- Health
- CBS News
Air conditioning out at Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospital, patients sent elsewhere
Patients at Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood had to be transported elsewhere with the air conditioning out on Tuesday afternoon. CBS News Chicago spoke with one family who said the thermostat read 87 degrees in her mom's room at Weiss before the woman was transported. The hospital said it may take several days before the system is back up and running. Patient after patient was seen being transported out of the emergency doors of Weiss Memorial Hospital, at 4646 N. Marine Dr., on Tuesday evening. Each one was loaded into ambulances due to what authorities called the "catastrophic loss" of the air conditioning system. "That's why we've got everything — two fans in here. She got one USB," John Celestino, who came to visit his 92-year-old mom in the morning, said as he went through a bag of items he brought. "It's like, 'This is weird.' I start seeing AC units or portables in the hallway." Half a dozen repair trucks were seen outside the back door of the hospital on Tuesday. Hospital management said the aging infrastructure has not been properly maintained by previous owners. "Thanks to the city of Chicago inspector that I saw earlier, and I was like, 'OK, they're here for, you know, something serious now,'" said Celestino. In the meantime, patients like Celestino's mom are being transported to West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park and other area hospitals. "What we heard from the staff that the AC's been down for months," Celestino said. While it was not known Tuesday night how long the system had been out, Celestino said they know the air conditioning has not been working in his mom's room since Saturday. "For a hospital, you know, it's really, you know, totally unacceptable and sad," Celestino said. The hospital said the outpatient and supporting areas were not impacted. The emergency room is redirecting ambulances, but is open to walk-in patients. However, any patients who need to be admitted will be transported to another facility. Weiss released the following statement: "Weiss Memorial Hospital has experienced a catastrophic loss of its air conditioning system. A team of mechanics are working diligently to restore the systems which is estimated to take several days given that the aging infrastructure had not been properly maintained by its previous owners. Once the repairs are completed the hospital will need to be cooled to a comfortable temperature before being allowed to resume operations. "In the interest of patient safety, we have transferred most of our valued patients to our sister hospital West Suburban Medical Center and have tapped other area hospitals to assist. The outpatient areas and its supporting areas will remain open as those areas are not impacted. Our Emergency Room is re-directing ambulances but remains open for walk-in patients. If any of these patients need admission, they will be stabilized and transferred to another facility. "We are all working to resolve this matter. Inconvenience to everyone is deeply regretted."
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
Fire crews rescue man from water at Chicago's Foster Avenue Beach
Chicago fire crews on Monday evening rescued a man in Lake Michigan off Foster Avenue Beach. The rescue happened at 5:43 p.m. There was no word late Monday on what led to the rescue, but CBS News Chicago is told the man was taken to Weiss Memorial Hospital. The man's condition was unknown late Monday, but he was not responsive when he was pulled from the water.
