West Suburban's River Forest campus faces eviction over $7.2 million in back rent

An eviction notice was recently posted to West Suburban Medical Center’s River Forest campus demanding the hospital pay over $7 million in rent owed.

Both the River Forest campus and West Suburban's main campus in Oak Park suddenly closed temporarily late last month because the owner, Manoj Prasad, couldn't pay employees following complications with the medical center's records system.

The notice, spotted by the Sun-Times on the doors of the medical campus Tuesday morning, says Prasad had five days to pay a rent bill totaling $7,258,966.60 or else access to the property will be terminated. The notice, dated April 9, lists three addresses all roughly within a block of each other: 420 William St., 7420 Central Ave. and 7411 Lake St.

The Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest newspaper first reported the eviction notice.

Prasad is the CEO and majority owner of Resilience Healthcare. The minority owner is Rathnaker Reddy Patlola, who also owns all of Resilience's hospital properties: the River Forest campus, the Oak Park campus and the shuttered Weiss Memorial Hospital in Uptown. Patlola's company is New Jersey-based Ramco Healthcare Holdings, LLC, which is listed as the landlord on the eviction notice.

Representatives for Prasad and Patlola did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It is unclear if the other properties have received or will soon receive eviction notices.

On March 25, Prasad announced he was temporarily closing West Suburban Medical Center and furloughing the vast majority of employees. He blamed the hospital’s year-old electronic medical record system “that has never functioned correctly” for the payroll issues. As a result, the hospital was operating on 10% to 15% of its usual revenue, he said.

Following the closure, Patlola said he was working to reopen the hospital under new management. He said in a statement he was in talks with Insight Hospital & Medical Center to see if the company could take over West Suburban. In a news conference earlier this month, Prasad pushed back on the idea and said he was the man who could get the hospital back up and running.

The hospital's medical record system wasn't the only issue plaguing West Suburban. Hospital inspection reports revealed broader problems at the Oak Park facility. In the months before closing, the hospital struggled to take care of its most critically ill patients and even keep the heat on.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.