Fox Rothschild LLP issued the following announcement on April 7.
In support of Governor Jay Robert Pritzker’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ira Bodenstein, the chapter 7 trustee for Westlake Hospital, assisted in the transition and transfer of the right to use and operate the hospital to the State of Illinois on April 2, 2020.
The Trustee, the Governor’s staff, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, the Office of the Attorney General, and State Representative Chris Welch worked collaboratively over a period of several days to effectuate the transfer to the State pursuant to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency Act.
The Trustee worked to quickly transition the hospital to the State so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Illinois National Guard could promptly implement a rapid facilities plan to reopen the hospital.
“We are grateful that we have the opportunity to turn this closed facility, which can be fairly easily retrofitted, into something that could help the community in the fight against COVID-19,” said Bodenstein.
Under Governor Pritzker’s current plan, Westlake Hospital will serve as an overflow facility for other neighboring hospitals that are currently treating COVID-19 patients. As an overflow facility, Westlake will treat non-infected patients for various other medical conditions, which will allow existing hospitals to focus on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The State will likely operate the hospital for 6 to 12 months, or for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, as determined by Governor Pritzker.
As one of the few non-operating hospital facilities in the State, Westlake Hospital was identified both by the Trustee and the State as an ideal site to help increase health care capacity in the Chicagoland area. Prior to closing, Westlake was licensed for 225 beds, including 12 ICU beds, 111 medical surgical beds, 40 rehabilitation beds, 33 behavioral beds, 24 obstetric beds and 5 pediatric beds. It ran six operating rooms plus two procedure rooms. According to hospital operations expert Stan Otake, of Wilshire Pacific Capital Advisors, if needed, the hospital could easily accommodate 400-500 beds on its 400,000 square foot campus.
Westlake Hospital was one of three Tenet Healthcare facilities that were sold on January 1, 2019, to SRC Hospital Investments II, LLC. Westlake Hospital filed for bankruptcy protection on August 6, 2019. The Office of the United States Trustee appointed Bodenstein as the chapter 7 trustee for the entities that owned and operated the hospital on August 14, 2019. Trustee was in the process of reviewing offers to purchase the hospital when the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
The Trustee is represented by Robert M. Fishman and Allen J. Guon of Fox Rothschild LLP and financial advisors Stan Otake and Eric Weissman of Wilshire Pacific Capital Advisors, LLC.
Original source can be found here.