Provident Hospital of Cook County resumes ambulance service on Wednesday
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Cook County leaders including president Toni Preckwinkle revealed plans to welcome the return of ambulance services to a South Side hospital.
Provident Hospital of Cook County in Washington Park is getting ready to welcome patients by ambulance again. It's set to start on Wednesday.
The hospital stopped the service back in 2011 as a way to reduce costs - causing a major strain at other nearby emergency rooms and cutting dozens of nursing positions.
Starting around 8:00 a.m., ambulance services will resume, this time with some new capabilities like a newly installed MRI, in-patient dialysis service, and reopening of the ICU.
"To get here today, we had to make approximately $2 million in emergency department renovations. We need to do another $2 million to start our MRI and we needed to do $1.3 million annually that will be part of our process to be able to have the expanded medical, surgical, and ICU capacities," said Chief Executive Officer for Cook County Health Israel Rocha Jr.
"I think the expansion of coverage has made this much more viable as a process and that is what led us to reopen. So being able to have the Affordable Care Act, the expansion of Medicaid, more services, and great assistance in investments from the county has made it a viable project."
According to Cook County Board President Preckwinkle, more than $5 million in investments have since been made to the hospital. The plan is to continue that growth.
