If SMP Health can reopen the Peru hospital, can it also rehire employees who’ve moved on to other jobs or who just don’t trust SMP? Several of the laid off employees who went to the LaSalle County Board today don’t plan on going back.
Joseph Skoflanc worked 27 years as a respiratory therapist. He feels misled. He says the administration was contemptuous.
Julie Repsel was a nursing supervisor in the emergency room. Repsel says she has found another job, but she’s waiting to find out if she’ll get $15,000 for accrued time off. She’d like someone besides SMP Health to run the hospital if it reopens.
The County Board approved a resolution offering non-financial support for reopening the hospital and urging state regulators to act quickly–with or without SMP Health as the operator. About 40 people were in the audience for that topic.
SMP Health says it held on as long as it could while facing various challenges until the agency that supplied emergency room doctors ended its contract. Under the rules the Peru hospital worked under, it couldn’t have a hospital without an emergency room staffed with doctors. SMP Health says it’s trying to get rural emergency hospital status which could allow it to operate under different rules with financial aid.
Former St. Margaret’s Health Peru employees attend the LaSalle County Board meeting February 9, 2023. The board approved a resolution of support for reopening the hospital.