It’s never a good situation when the ills of a city’s hospital appear in the pages of a national magazine. But that’s what’s happened in the latest issue of Mother Jones.
The September/October publication hammers Los Angeles-based American Health Systems, the parent of Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan, for turning hospitals “into cash machines.”
Vista, purchased by AHS three years ago, is one of the hospitals the company has more or less abandoned, according to the article penned by Hannah Levintova and Ashley Cleek.
While most Waukeganites know of the continuing sad state of affairs at Vista, the six-page story takes a wider view of the business practices of AHS and Michael Sarian, its chief executive officer. It’s not a pleasant read about what’s happened to once-respected hospitals not only in Waukegan, but others AHS owns, including one in downstate Granite City.
Those unfamiliar with the left-leaning, 50-year-old muckraking periodical, since 2024 an arm of the Center for Investigative Reporting, should know it is named for Mary Harris Jones, aka Mother Jones, an early union activist among coal miners and a socialist firebrand. The former Chicagoan, an Irish immigrant, is buried in Union Miners Cemetery in Mount Olive, in the midst of Downstate Illinois coal country.
The tale of Vista Health’s descent into continuing financial bleeding is similar to other hospitals AHS owns, according to the Mother Jones reporters. Promises of turning ailing, debt-ridden health-care centers into hospitals with “growing and expanding quality services” seem to have been hollow across the company’s portfolio.
For instance, Vista suspended its obstetrical and neonatal services last October. Nearly 70 employees have been laid off.
Staff furloughs resulted in a lack of “designated sitters,” workers who monitor patients at risk, according to several reports. That led, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Vista, to the death of Chelsea Adolphus, 28, from hypothermia after being found on the roof of the hospital during a cold spell in late January 2025.
Non-payment of taxes and leaving vendors hanging for payment appear to be recurring themes at AHS, the two Mother Jones reporters discovered. From a St. Louis facility to Gateway Regional Medical Center across the Mississippi River in Granite City to a Florida hospital to one in North Carolina, the song remains the same.
At Vista, AHS owes more than $1.1 million in unpaid real estate property taxes from 2023 and more than another $1 million in 2024 taxes. A company that buys delinquent taxes is poised to foreclose on the property on Waukegan’s North Side at Sheridan Road and Glen Flora Avenue and become the new deed holder of the hospital.
In the midst of Vista’s financial turmoil, AHS has appointed a new CEO, Daisy Rodriguez, to replace long-time Waukegan resident Kim Needham, a 27-year employee of the hospital, who resigned. She was named CEO just in April 2025 and now transitions to a consulting position.
The new CEO is Vista’s fifth since AHS purchased the hospital from Quorum Health Corp. Rodriguez, a registered nurse, holds a master’s in nursing with more than 20 years of experience in the health-care industry, the company said.
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According to her LinkedIn profile, Rodriguez was founder and CEO of Transform Health Solutions; CEO of Humboldt Park Health, an urgent care and imaging facility in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood from 2004 to March of this year; and executive director of Trinity Health in Michigan.
Hopefully, she can fulfill promises of taking Vista to the next level, but that may be a tall order considering the state of finances of its parent company. Principals of AHS are currently involved in several lawsuits, with each accusing the other of siphoning company funds for their own use, according to the Mother Jones account.
For Waukegan Mayor Sam Cunningham, the continuing spiral surrounding Vista and the revolving door of top-level management must be frustrating. But he told Steve Sadin in an Aug. 15 front-page News-Sun story he is “cautiously optimistic” about the hospital’s new CEO.
“Rodriguez is an accomplished healthcare executive whose leadership has guided hospitals through change while strengthening clinical operations, supporting care teams and expanding access to care,” Cunningham said in an Aug. 7 News-Sun article.
As he also pointed out to Sadin: “Health care is a fundamental right,” and that Vista’s corporate parent has “obligations to the people of Waukegan.” The community deserves accessible health care while workers at the hospital shouldn’t have to worry about “financial uncertainty.”
With two Illinois hospitals owned by AHS, it’s time for state officials to begin investigating what is causing the financial wreckage at Vista and Gateway and who is accountable. Mother Jones has given them a roadmap for where to begin.
Vista’s debt to local government entities and service providers certainly isn’t going away soon. Action is needed now rather than later, given the hospital’s current diagnosis.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor. [email protected]. X @sellenews