{"id":926378,"date":"2026-07-10T21:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926378\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T21:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T21:50:18","slug":"saint-joseph-joliet-shutting-down-pediatric-inpatient-unit-nbc-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/926378\/","title":{"rendered":"Saint Joseph Joliet shutting down pediatric inpatient unit \u2013 NBC Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Healthcare hospital Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet has filed paperwork<\/a> with the state of Illinois to permanently close its pediatric inpatient unit. <\/p>\n

The move comes after the hospital, in April of 2025, said it was temporarily suspending overnight inpatient pediatric care at the 13-bed unit citing low patient volume<\/a>. As of June 29, 2026, the hospital, owned by California-based Prime Healthcare, filed for a “permanent discontinuation” of those services. <\/p>\n

“Patients under age 18 will continue to receive treatment at Saint Joseph’s Emergency Department, which will maintain its designation as a certified Pediatric Ready Emergency Department,” the hospital told NBC Chicago Thursday in a statement. <\/p>\n

According to the filing, the hospital said the closure of the unit was justified by “insufficient volume and lack of demand for inpatient pediatric services.” It also said the unit’s previous suspension of services was “due to unforeseen circumstances.” <\/p>\n

The hospital said the unit saw an average one or fewer patients a day, which raised concerns about the quality of care that could be provided. The filing also said the hospital was already directing inpatient pediatric patients to other hospitals, with an average of 12.2 transfer per month. <\/p>\n

Prime said in the filing that the proposed discontinuation of services “is not expected to have an adverse impact on access to care for residents of the facility’s market area.” Joliet Mayor Terry D’Arcy did not provide a comment on the closure. <\/p>\n

“Saint Joseph proposes to discontinue inpatient pediatric services, but the hospital will continue to maintain physicians available in its Emergency Department to evaluate and treat pediatric patients who present for care,” the filing said.<\/p>\n

The hospital says it maintains a transfer agreement for patients requiring newborn, inpatient pediatric services and specialized inpatient pediatric care with Endeavor Edward Hospital in Naperville, about 20 miles away; and with Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, about nine miles away. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the hospital said newborn, NICU and maternity services at St. Joseph’s would not be impacted.<\/p>\n

Staff members within the unit were offered positions at other Prime Healthcare hospitals in the Chicago area, the hospital said. The statement also said the hospital and its owners “remain deeply committed to the Joliet community continue to invest in services that meet the evolving community healthcare needs.”<\/p>\n

In March of 2025, Prime Healthcare purchased eight Ascension Illinois hospitals, including Saint Joseph Medical Center, in a deal worth over $370 million. Four months later,<\/a> the system’s new owner said it planned to cut 100 jobs across several of its newly acquired hospitals, prompting a letter of concern<\/a> from Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were promised no services would be cut for two years. Now they\u2019re closing units, cutting jobs, and ignoring our union contract,” a nurse at St. Joseph told NBC Chicago at the time. <\/p>\n

Nurses at St. Joseph’s, who are represented by the Illinois Nurses Association, alleged “chronic understaffing at the hospital” has led to emotional distress for the nurses who work there. In June, some moved to file a class action lawsuit against Prime, saying the hospital has refused to meet safe nurse-to-patient needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery nurse at St. Joseph\u2019s has seen a patient suffer because the floor wasn\u2019t staffed properly\u2014whether that\u2019s a patient falling, experiencing bed sores because they weren\u2019t turned over in time, or missing a medication dose,” Mary Sue Bulger, a nurse at the hospital, said in a release about the complaint. “It\u2019s traumatizing to watch.”<\/p>\n

The complaint, filed in Will County, said Prime repeatedly breached St. Joseph\u2019s legally-mandated nurse staffing plan, “forcing nurses to work shifts that put themselves and their patients in danger.” In response, the hospital told NBC Chicago that “staffing models are evidence-based and aligned with national best practices to ensure quality, safety, and full compliance with all applicable state and federal regulations.”<\/p>\n

In a statement sent Friday to NBC Chicago about the closure, the INA condemned Prime’s application to close the unit, saying it would “leave Illinois\u2019 third largest city without any inpatient care for its children.”<\/p>\n

“For years, this unit has been chronically underinvested in,” the statement said. “The decision shouldn\u2019t be to close, but to invest more into it so Joliet parents can continue receiving high quality health care for their children and nurses have the support they need to care for their patients.”<\/p>\n

According to the filing, Prime Healthcare is seeking to the unit at St. Joseph’s upon board approval or by the end of the year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Healthcare hospital Saint Joseph Medical Center in Joliet has filed paperwork with the state of Illinois to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":926379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[210,1141,1142,3584,6390,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-926378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hospitals","tag-joliet","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116897895720162462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}