Mercy tables plans for hospital in Crystal Lake
Mercy Health System hopes to build a medical office building and surgery center in Crystal Lake while plans for a new hospital are on hold, the company announced Monday.
The announcement comes more than three years after a McHenry County ruling threatened the Wisconsin-based company's plans to build a hospital in Crystal Lake.
While stating its intent to build the office building and surgery center, Mercy reaffirmed its plan to build a new hospital in Crystal Lake.
"There is a real need for additional hospital services in one of the fastest growing areas of Illinois," said Mercy spokeswoman Barbara Bortner in a statement. "Therefore, it is still our intent to build a hospital in Crystal Lake."
The statement said current Illinois law, which requires health care companies to obtain a Certificate of Need before undertaking large-scale expansion projects, "makes it difficult for anyone to build a new hospital anywhere in Illinois."
Centegra Health System, which fought Mercy's plans to build a facility that would have competed with Centegra's hospitals in McHenry and Woodstock, declined comment on the new plans.
"We can't comment on it until we see what their actual plans are," Centegra spokeswoman Melissa Matusek said.
In 2005, a McHenry County judge overturned a state panel decision authorizing Mercy's plans to build an $81 million hospital at Three Oaks Road and Route 31.
The ruling said there was not enough evidence supporting the state panel's decision, which was the subject of a federal corruption probe culminating in the June conviction of Antoin "Tony" Rezko.