Group rallies against permanent closure of Chicago's Weiss Memorial Hospital
Doctors, nurses, patients, and community members rallied Monday in front of the shuttered Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood.
They urged administrators to act before a federal deadline makes the closure permanent.
All inpatient services at Weiss, at 4646 N. Marine Dr., are halted. An explanation posted to the Weiss Memorial Hospital website said a loss of access to Medicare and Medicaid forced the closure, which put hundreds of hospital employees out of a job.
The hospital mainly served senior citizens and low-income residents who have been forced to find other facilities to get inpatient treatment.
"Our elders, a lot of the local community members who have relied on Weiss for decades had to be transferred to hospitals that are not as accessible, especially folks who have historically relied on just public transit or just to walk to the emergency room now have to go miles away," said Lilly Le, community services manager at the Vietnamese Association of Illinois.
Resilience Healthcare chief executive officer Dr. Manoj Prasad said in August that only outpatient services would continue, but surgeries and the emergency department have been shut down. The ER doors were locked on Aug. 8, and patients coming to Weiss for emergency treatment have been told to drive a mile south to a different hospital.
That sudden shutdown of the emergency room at Weiss drew an outcry about six weeks ago.
Community organizers called the shutdown a catastrophe.
"This hospital has been an anchor for the community, and particularly an anchor for low-income residents in this community," said Northside Action for Justice leader Marc Kaplan.
Federal surveyors had visited the facility after receiving complaints, and decided to put Weiss' license on hold.
The CBS News Chicago investigators dug into that loss of federal dollars. It turned out Illinois state health inspectors also came to the facility multiple times over the past five years to look into reports of mistreatment and hygiene issues.
Between February 2020 and February 2025, public records show state health inspectors visited Weiss seven times to investigate a variety of complaints. They found multiple failures involving patient care, including misusing physical restraints, not getting patient consent for treatment and not appropriately monitoring patients at risk for suicide.
The head of the hospital addressed those issues last month.
"There was nothing that endangered the life or health of anyone," Prasad said at the time.
Meanwhile, hospital employees are concerned about their own futures.
"I'd have to look for a different job like many of us are, but I mean, there's only so many positions," said ER tech Alaa Alkhati, one of approximately 700 employees affected by the closure.
Hospital leaders can appeal the federal license hold, but their deadline is in two days.
Weiss administrators said they've spent millions on repairs and maintenance to date, but need more money to get the job done, and they blamed the closure on a lack of state funding.
"We have been in discussions with the state, county and city leadership and have obtained support for our efforts. We have met with and interviewed several highly regarded law firms who specialize in this area and have engaged a law firm and plan to timely file the appeal. However, one must remember, Weiss is a small safety-net hospital that has suffered many years of abuse and neglect that will need to be addressed. Safety net grants need to be more evenly and equitably distributed so Weiss may get its fair share," Prasad said in a statement on Monday.
State lawmakers said they secured $4 million for Weiss in the most recent Illinois budget, but haven't released that funding yet due to what they called accountability concerns.
"We went and we got funds to make that facility happen, and then Dr. Prasad ghosted us. He ghosted us," said state Sen. Mike Simmons (D-Chicago).