St. Margaret’s Health Peru, the former Illinois Valley Community Hospital, will close next Saturday morning, January 28. SMP Health says it’s temporarily suspending services there because it can’t get a new emergency room service provider. The current provider is pulling out. And state law says if the hospital doesn’t have a functioning emergency room, the rest of the hospital can’t be open either.
Patients are being contacted about rescheduling and relocating their appointments to St. Margaret’s Health Spring Valley. Local ambulance services are being told to take patients to Spring Valley starting Thursday, January 26. It will be a farther trip for women expecting to have babies soon. They could go to hospitals in Morris, Ottawa, or Pontiac. All the pregnancy services at Spring Valley were moved to Peru last year.
A letter to employees encourages them to apply for other jobs with St. Margaret’s. It also says work is underway to convert the Peru hospital to one that can stay open with somewhat different rules to better serve rural areas.