When someone gets into a serious car accident or experiences a life-threatening medical incident and needs immediate emergency care, they expect to be transported to an ER quickly by local EMS — but what happens when there aren’t any hospitals with trauma capabilities available to accept them?
The lack of emergency room availability may very well become a reality for several Will County communities. It’s exactly why the Beecher Fire Protection District and Crete Township Fire Protection District are joining other fire districts across Will County to sound the alarm, warning of a potentially devastating situation.
Together, they’re trying to raise awareness as concerns continue to mount over where trauma patients quickly can be transported in the face of reduced emergency hospital services, especially when nothing is replacing them.
“The Will County Fire Chiefs Association is deeply concerned about the recent closures and reduction of services at hospitals within IDPH Region 7, which includes Will, Kankakee, Grundy, southern Cook, and southern Kane Counties,” President John O’Connor said in a statement to The Vedette.
Since 2018, several hospitals serving the area have closed or changed status, O’Connor explained.
St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights closed in 2018, MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island closed in 2019, Prime Healthcare St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee closed its maternity ward in 2023, and then it dropped its Level II Trauma status. Additionally in 2023, Mercy Aurora dropped its Level II Trauma status, as did Morris Hospital in 2024.
The widespread issue also has gained the attention of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.
“Changes to the services provided by a hospital have a direct impact on the communities our fire departments protect. These service changes not only impact the patient that is being transported to a hospital, but may impact the next patient requesting help,” Illinois Fire Chiefs Association Executive Director John Buckley explained.
“When an ambulance is forced to transport to a further hospital or a hospital is crowded and the ambulance is not able to return to the community immediately, the ambulance is not able to assist during the next emergency. While plans are in place to provide services in these situations, the delay may be detrimental to the person in need of assistance,” Buckley added.
With medical emergencies, seconds can mean the difference between life and death — and it’s why long emergency room wait times are criticized so heavily by the public.
It’s no secret: access to emergency medical care is a vital necessity, not a luxury.
This is also why fire districts so stringently track their ambulance run times, meaning the travel time to and from an emergency, so they can provide the best and fastest possible care to their patients.
Significant Impact on Beecher and Crete Communities
For Illinois/Indiana border communities like Beecher and Crete, which largely rely on the emergency services of Indiana hospitals, the impending transition of Franciscan Dyer’s emergency room to a behavioral health center could be disastrous.
Franciscan Dyer Hospital announced roughly a year ago in a press release, it would transition its hospital to a behavioral health campus in 2027 — its emergency room would no longer serve general emergencies in the same capacity as it had.
“Patients seeking emergency room care may seek treatment at Franciscan Health Munster,” the release said.
Beecher Fire Protection District Chief Joe Falaschetti Jr. is especially concerned, as emergency services already have been significantly reduced, and there haven’t been any signs the lost services would be replaced.
“When Franciscan closed St. James in Chicago Heights, they said we could transport to Olympia Fields and Dyer could accommodate. Except both were already overwhelmed then,” Falaschetti explained of the 2018 closure.
He explained paramedics would have to offload patients into beds in the hallway or wait for a nurse to accept a patient, sometimes for a half hour or longer.
“I understand there is a lot of need for behavioral health, but to take an existing hospital that is already taxed and close it, it’s going to impact all of the communities in the Dixie Highway corridor, and when it comes to us, we’ll feel it the most,” Falaschetti said.
The Beecher Fire Protection District recently hired its first full-time officers this past August and remains a small fire district. Despite its small size, the community is growing, with several new home developments currently in the works, adding more people to the area — and increasing the demand for emergency services.
Beecher’s limited resources mean when they are out on a call, the ambulance is out of service for that amount of time. They anticipate run times to consistently exceed an hour. The district will have to rely on mutual aid, and with all of the area fire districts feeling the pressure, it may prove even more difficult to get help.
“It will have a major impact on services. There is no funding mechanism in place to increase the turnaround time or provide additional resources,” Falaschetti explained, noting they won’t be able to add ambulances or staffing to account for the long run times.
Like Beecher, Crete Township Fire Protection District Chief Donald Radtke Jr. also shared the concern of what these diminishing services mean for the communities they serve.
“The Crete Township Fire Protection District has many concerns with mitigating delays in response to our residents and surrounding communities,” Radtke said.
“While the residents of Crete Township and surrounding communities have already endured the closing of one Franciscan Health facility, St. James Chicago Heights, we will be forced to endure the closing of another Franciscan facility with Dyer,” Radtke continued.
Currently, 68 percent of their advanced life support and basic life support calls are transported to Franciscan Dyer — and its closure will undoubtedly affect those in the district, Radtke explained.
“The closing of Franciscan Dyer will increase our average transport time from 16 minutes to 27 minutes and increase turnaround travel time by 22 minutes, which will have a direct effect on servicing our community,” Radtke added.
And the increased travel time assumes the hospitals won’t be overloaded and will be available to accept patients.
Falaschetti said Dyer is regularly on bypass due to its high volume of patients.
“Our fear is the current capacity of emergency rooms cannot handle patient demands and eliminating an emergency room will put a burden on the currently stressed system,” Radtke said, noting the dire reality that awaits.
Transporting to Munster, which is where Franciscan’s press release directed those needing emergency care, would still add significant travel time.
From Beecher, Falaschetti estimated it would add at least 11 minutes to travel times — and that’s not counting delays from traffic congestion, weather, or construction. Currently, Falaschetti said Beecher’s average transport time to Franciscan Dyer is just over 17 minutes, so patients would be traveling a half hour in the best of conditions.
“The provision of emergency services is rooted in time: a rapid response, a quicker trip to a hospital, and an immediate return to the community – an immediate response is essential to providing vital lifesaving services to those in need,” Buckley said, noting the significance of the issue.
Ultimately, the closure or reduction in emergency services by area hospitals makes a major negative impact on the people the fire districts serve.
Seeking Solutions
As Franciscan Dyer’s transition date looms in the future, few truly viable solutions exist as to how the fire districts can continue to provide the same level of service following the change to behavioral health.
Falaschetti explained he had reached out to Franciscan multiple times to try and figure out a solution but said he always was referred back to the press release.
His reports to the board of trustees reflected the lack of communication.
“Efforts to establish communication with Franciscan Dyer Hospital have stalled despite multiple emails and voicemails. No response has been received from administrative staff,” Falaschetti’s August 28 report read.
Falashchetti said as of October 2, the status was the same.
“We stand by our news release,” Lauri Keagle, manager of Media Relations and Corporate Communications for Dyer Franciscan, said in an email.
Keagle would not provide any further comment outside of their press release to The Vedette.
“[Franciscan Dyer] is the closest hospital for several departments in eastern Will County, and its transition will result in transport times doubling for many emergencies,” O’Connor said, indicating more communities beyond Beecher and Crete will feel the impact of this change.
O’Connor explained it is part of a larger issue and will result in an increased strain on the remaining hospitals.
This “means increased wait times, as patients who would have gone to the above facilities may now be diverted elsewhere. Currently, there are 15 hospitals in Region 7. At any given time, five are at capacity (“at census”), and it is not uncommon for as many as nine hospitals to be at census simultaneously,” O’Connor added.
Over the summer, Manhattan Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Dave Piper expressed similar concerns regarding the closure of St. Mary’s Hospital in Kankakee, which directly has affected their operations — underscoring how widespread the problem is.
What’s Next?
Falaschetti explained they are trying to be proactive and continually seek grant funding to supplement their resources, although it won’t solve the problem. Beecher undoubtedly will have to rely on mutual aid more frequently.
Radtke also affirmed they’ll do the best they can, given the circumstances, and will monitor their availability, making adjustments as needed. However, they’ll also have to rely more on mutual and auto aid partners, like Beecher.
Radtke also vowed to evaluate, through risk management, how to make adjustments during peak service demands and ensure citizens are educated on the proper use of EMS services, especially given the limited resources available.
“The Illinois Fire Chiefs Association continues to work on possible solutions, although this is a very difficult issue to mitigate,” Buckley explained in a statement.
Locally in Will County, area fire chiefs are being as proactive as they can.
“The Will County Fire Chiefs Association has established a subcommittee and begun meeting with elected officials to both raise awareness of this issue and better understand whether this trend will continue, or if there are opportunities to restore critical services at affected hospitals,” O’Connor said.
“The more information we can gather, the better prepared our departments will be to deliver the highest level of prehospital care to the residents of Will County,” O’Connor added.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.
Thank you for this information.
Research needs to be conducted and given he the appropriate mayors, districts, and attorney generals for the state. If we are paying taxes for these services they need to be provided & we must stop shelling out double pensions like candy.