Four of the seven other long-term acute care hospitals in the Chicago metropolitan area also are run by Kindred, which has about 80 hospitals and 240 nursing centers in 28 states.

Other Chicago-area facilities are affiliated with Advocate Healthcare, Resurrection Healthcare or the Loyola University and Rush University medical centers. None of the seven is located on the South Side of Chicago or anywhere south of Interstate Highway 55.

That geographic gap shows the need for such care in the southern metropolitan area, Kindred officials said at a public hearing Wednesday at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.

There is a "hugely disproportionate distribution" of long-term acute care beds, said Jack Shapiro, chief executive officer of Kindred Hospitals Illinois.

Shapiro noted many hospitals in the south suburbs and on the city's South Side support Kindred's proposal. They include Little Company of Mary in Evergreen Park and Jackson Park, Holy Cross and Roseland hospitals in Chicago, he said.

"Our main problem is the distance," said Kindred supporter Dr. Brahma Gupta, who is affiliated with St. Bernard Hospital at 63rd Street and the Dan Ryan Expressway. It creates a hardship on families and doctors, who can't actively participate in their patient's care, he said.

But officials from RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale and Advocate Healthcare, which runs Bethany Hospital on Chicago's West Side, maintain that Kindred's proposal for Hickory Hills is an unnecessary duplication of services that will hurt the region's other facilities.

Letters of opposition from Loyola University Medical Center, a partner in RML Hospital, and Resurrection's Des Plaines-based Holy Family Hospital were read into the record.

Kindred's competitors maintain that plenty of beds exist to serve the region. Some also argued that Kindred's figures were flawed. In addition, RML officials noted that long-term acute care hospital referrals are done on a regional, not local basis.

However, Kindred staffers noted that they have had patients put on waiting lists by RML Specialty Hospital because they do not have a bed, particularly for Medicare patients.

Shapiro said 32 percent of the Kindred's patients are served by health insurance for patients with low incomes, a much higher percentage than RML.

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