The former Mercy Hospital, now Insight Hospital and Medical Center
Photographer: Carlos Javier Ortiz for Bloomberg BusinessweekThe Left-for-Dead Hospital That Got a Second Chance for $1
Mercy Hospital, a 168-year-old anchor on Chicago’s South Side serving the poor and uninsured, was about to succumb to the brutal economics of American health care. Then an unlikely savior appeared.
Word of Mercy Hospital’s demise began to circulate just after 9 a.m. on July 29, 2020. The hospital’s chief executive officer summoned the medical executive committee to an unscheduled conference call. She told them she’d be sending a staffwide memo shortly and felt a heads-up was in order.
“The decision to discontinue services at Mercy Hospital was not an easy one,” the memo read. More words followed—something about decreasing hospital reimbursements and ballooning capital expenses. Dr. Adele Joy Cobbs, an emergency physician on the committee, felt blindsided. She listened for the reactions of the other committee members on the call. The seconds ticked by.