Ambulances carrying seriously injured patients in northern Lake County can no longer take them to Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan.
The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) revoked the hospital's Level 2 trauma center designation on Friday, Oct. 23, Lake and McHenry County Scanner first reported. The move came one day after the hospital's contracted anesthesia group suspended all anesthesia services over a missed payment.
Paramedics must now transport trauma patients to other hospitals, including Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital and Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, according to the Scanner's reporting. For Lake Forest and Lake Bluff residents, Lake Forest Hospital is now the closest Level 2 trauma center.
IDPH Division Chief of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Highway Safety Kristofer Tackett said in a memo that Vista is no longer designated as a Level 2 trauma center in Lake County's EMS region. Tackett directed affected EMS systems to update their trauma destination protocols and notify their ambulance agencies. The memo did not state a reason for the revocation.
Missed payment triggered the crisis
The hospital's contracted anesthesia providers told Vista administrators in a letter dated Thursday, Oct. 22, that all services would be suspended at noon that day, the Scanner reported.
The providers said the hospital missed the Oct. 16 deadline for Invoice 17 under a revised payment schedule agreed to on Sept. 23. That agreement covered invoices 15 through 18 and stipulated that if the hospital failed to pay any provider by the deadline for those invoices, all anesthesia services would be suspended the next day.
The suspension covered anesthesia in the operating room, emergency department, cardiac catheterization laboratory, endoscopy department and intensive care unit. The amount owed was not stated.
State rules require a Level 2 trauma center to have anesthesia staff on call who can reach the hospital within 30 minutes.
Coroner urged state to act
Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek, herself a certified registered nurse anesthetist who previously administered anesthesia at Vista, asked IDPH leaders in a letter on Oct. 22 to investigate immediately.
"According to the information provided to me, both service losses are the result of nonpayment," Banek said, referring to the loss of both anesthesia and urology specialists.
Banek asked the state to verify whether the hospital still had anesthesia coverage for emergencies, whether urology services remained available and whether patients and EMS agencies had been told about limits on care.
Pattern of unpaid bills
This is the second revocation in less than three years. IDPH first pulled Vista's trauma center designation on Feb. 2, 2024, citing in part that anesthesiology services were not available within 30 minutes and that surgeries had been canceled. IDPH reinstated the designation on March 11, 2024.
American Healthcare Systems (AHS), the California-based for-profit chain that bought Vista in July 2023, has struggled to pay the hospital's bills since the acquisition, the Scanner reported. A judge entered a default judgment in July ordering the hospital to pay ComEd $822,321.51 in unpaid electric bills. ComEd sued again on Aug. 28 seeking more than $1.4 million.
AHS has not paid the hospital's property taxes for 2023, 2024 or 2025 and owes more than $3 million on the property with interest and fees, county records show.
What Vista said
Vista Health System said in a statement that it is evaluating the hospital's scope of services as part of an "ongoing operational review." The statement did not mention the anesthesia suspension, the missed payment or whether the hospital has found other anesthesia coverage.
It was not known as of Oct. 24 whether the hospital would appeal the revocation or when it could seek reinstatement. A tax buyer that purchased the hospital's unpaid 2023 taxes is seeking ownership through a tax deed, with the case due back in Lake County Circuit Court on Nov. 20.
