I - 355 Toll Road extension gets approved.
2004 Property for the hospital was transferred (Title document). Issue is a bit confusing but this information is what provided by Silver Cross to the state of Illinois.
2005 Silver Cross begins working confidentally with RTKL architects.
2006 RTKL and Navigant Consulting still going strong, Land studies are conducted on the New Lenox site.
2007 RTKL, Navigant, and New Castle groups were paid to evaluate further. It is determined that one of the best possible usages for the old site is a Medical Center. Like a Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet? I agree the best use for the old site is a hospital, we are in luck there is already a hospital on the site.
2007 July 2007 Silver Cross marketing campaign is in full effect, then after the public was mislead on what the new hospital would actually provide a survey was conducted.
2007 Olinger Group Survey was conducted in August 31 2007 to September 6 2007 the objectives were to understand the public's understanding and opinion of the plan. Several problems: Silver Cross was already misleading the public on what would actually be offered at the new hospital so the survey results would be based on those erroneous facts, second the actual questions of the survey are not in the Certificate of Need document third etc... This type of report would get a failing grade in a first year marketing class.
Hmm if the Toll Road was not approved would Silver Cross still claim they "need" a new hospital? Why would a nonprofit healthcare organization work in secret without community input on a plan that has so much impact? Don't you think community leaders might have some ideas that would be useful? Dont you think all pros/cons should have been discussed in public instead of working in secret? One possible reason that they did not want community input is because they knew there would be strong opposition to wasting nearly 1/2 a billion dollars of our healthcare funds. That is why Silver Cross needed to sell the hospital like a can of soda, that is why they keep mentioning children and the partnership with children's memorial. When in fact there will be no new category of services for children. martylepacek@gmail.com
