A Cook County judge said Friday he plans to appoint a receiver over West Suburban and Weiss Memorial hospitals to get them “under control,” after months of battles in court over their future.
Though the hospitals’ current owners and many community members have said they want to see the safety net hospitals reopened, the receiver’s immediate job won’t be to reopen the facilities, but rather to stabilize the situation, Cook County Circuit Judge Patrick Stanton said at a hearing Friday afternoon.
“We’re not talking about who can get these reopened right now,” Stanton said. “We’re talking about getting things secured and getting control, and we’ll go from there. I do not do this lightly.”
The judge has not yet decided who the receiver will be.
The decision to appoint a receiver is a blow for the hospitals’ current operator, Resilience Healthcare, which is majority-owned by Dr. Manoj Prasad, who had sought to continue managing the hospitals.
It’s a win, however, for the hospitals’ landlord, Ramco Healthcare Holdings, which began asking the judge to appoint a receiver months ago.
Stanton said at a hearing early Friday afternoon that a number of problems over the last couple of months have convinced him that a receiver is necessary. He said those events include news in recent days that Weiss has lost its state hospital license; allegations that Resilience has been moving equipment off the properties; and the continued lack of a functioning electronic medical records system.
“Based on what’s occurred to date, I think someone needs to take control of this entity and it should no longer be the current parties,” Stanton said. He said of the situation, “I think it’s gone on long enough.”
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Stanton said he wants the receiver to get a sense of the hospitals’ finances and liabilities and see if there’s a way to appeal Weiss’ loss of its license.
Stanton had previously, in June, denied Ramco’s request for appointment of a receiver, but he said he’s since lost confidence in past pledges from the hospitals’ current management.
Stanton said he plans to issue an order appointing a receiver early next week.
Ramco had been asking the judge to either appoint a receiver or enforce a settlement agreement in which the hospitals’ owners would work to sell them to Insight Health Systems and Prasad would step down as CEO. Ramco and Resilience initially agreed to the terms of that settlement in late May, but Resilience later pushed back on finalizing the agreement.
Stanton said Friday he’d hold off, for now, on a decision about the potential settlement.
Prasad and his attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
Patlola said in a statement Friday that he’s “grateful” for the judge’s decision to appoint a receiver. Patlola is also a minority owner of Resilience.
“The receivership will bring experienced, accountable management to the hospitals, so the work of stabilizing the facility and moving toward reopening can begin in earnest,” Patlola said. “I am hopeful about what lies ahead for the patients and residents who rely on this hospital, and for the dedicated staff who have stood by it through a difficult period and who make quality care possible.”
Community leaders and doctors said they were also pleased to hear the judge’s plans Friday.
The Rev. Robin Hood, a leader of the Coalition to Save Safety Net Hospitals, called it a “step forward.” The coalition, which is made up of community organizations working to reopen Weiss and West Suburban, earlier on Friday held a news conference outside the courthouse and delivered letters to the court from community members advocating for the appointment of a receiver.
The coalition would ultimately like to see professionals who know “how to save hospitals” work to reopen Weiss and West Suburban, Hood said. Weiss and West Suburban were both safety net hospitals, meaning they served large numbers of people on Medicaid, a state and federally funded health insurance program for people with low incomes.
Dr. Vishnu Chundi, a longtime West Suburban physician, also called the judge’s plans to appoint a receiver a “first step.”
“What was happening was completely unacceptable with the folks that were running it, Prasad and company doing the same old thing and stalling, fundamentally,” said Chundi, who is also chair of the Chicago Medical Society’s Task Force to Restore Care at West Suburban Medical Center.
He noted, however, that the task force would like to provide input on who might be an appropriate receiver. The doctors are not comfortable with either Ramco or Resilience choosing a receiver, said Ted Kanellakes, CEO of the Chicago Medical Society.
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Ramco has already suggested an individual to be a receiver over the hospitals. Stanton said at the hearing Friday that the parties can make other suggestions before Tuesday if they want someone else to be the receiver.
The decision on Friday follows years of turmoil over the hospitals and comes more than five months after West Suburban abruptly closed, and more than a year after Weiss in Uptown shuttered.
Prasad has previously said that he was forced to close West Suburban in March because of problems with its billing system that led to the hospital not being able to collect payments for claims. Weiss closed in August 2025, after the federal government said it was terminating the hospital from the Medicare program. Its termination followed a breakdown of its air conditioning system as well as other issues.
A recent Tribune investigation revealed that after Resilience bought Weiss and West Suburban in 2022, it received more than $24 million in state grants while racking up debts of roughly $100 million in state loans and unpaid taxes. State officials missed red flags as they approved the hospitals’ sale and failed to follow rules as they gave money to the hospitals, according to the Tribune investigation.