Provena loses appeal to stop nearby Sherman construction

A three-judge panel has agreed that a lawsuit seeking to halt construction of Sherman Hospital's new 255-bed facility on Elgin's west side was rightly dismissed.

The appellate court in Elgin Monday unanimously sided with Sherman officials in their defense against Provena St. Joseph of Elgin.

The ruling means construction on the $310 million facility will continue unimpeded and Provena has exhausted its legal options.

"We're thrilled at the outcome," said Sherman spokeswoman Christine Priester. "We hope for the good of the community both hospitals can move forward."

Provena sued in 2006 after the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board gave Sherman permission to erect the replacement hospital at the northeast corner of Randall and Big Timber roads.

Provena officials had argued the new Sherman facility, which is less than 3ˆ¨ miles from their own, would hurt their revenue and cause an excess of hospital beds on the city's west side.

Provena officials said in a written statement late Monday they were disappointed in the ruling but considered the matter closed.

"We stand behind our contention that Sherman hospital's project not only fails to meet state rules but, more importantly, will ultimately hurt our community and create an imbalance of our health care system," it read in part. "That alone is why we are strongly against Sherman building an unnecessary, expensive hospital less than four miles away from our campus and why we worked tirelessly to preserve access to care for all residents."

Last summer, a Cook County judge dismissed the lawsuit. Judge Peter Flynn wrote that he did not agree with the planning board's decision but had no legal basis to overturn it.

The appellate panel this week wrote that expanding Sherman's old facility would have been cost prohibitive, that Provena had ample opportunity to state its case, and that "it is not the (planning board's) responsibility to protect market share of individual providers."

The appellate panel also ruled that Provena did not try to delay the board's final ruling and Sherman had already broken ground and spent millions on the project, which is due for completion in late 2009.

"(Provena's lawsuit) seemed frivolous from the beginning and that's what we said all along," Priester said.

Provena officials could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.

In 2005, Provena St. Joseph broke ground on a $97 million expansion and modernization project.

The 163,000-square-foot expansion includes a four-story tower with 99 private rooms for a total of 139 private rooms. It is slated for completion in April.