New Mercy Hospital Owners Face ‘Deplorable’ Conditions And Mounting Debt. Can They Revive A Bronzeville Institution?

Insight Chicago’s deal to buy Mercy Hospital was finalized last month. Now, the new owners are working to rejuvenate a 169-year-old hospital that nearly closed.

Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in the Near South Side neighborhood on March 29, 2021.

It’s the same doubt he faced when he decided to turn a shuttered WWII tank plant in Flint, Michigan, into a neurosurgery center 13 years ago. And it’s the same uncertainty he’s facing now, as the president and CEO of Insight Chicago, preparing to take over a South Side hospital plagued by decades of decline, neglect, and misfortune.

When Mercy Hospital exits the Trinity Health umbrella next month, it will do so facing severe challenges and with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Insight Chicago will also have the delicate task of rebuilding trust with a community that routinely has had to fight to receive even a basic standard of medical care.

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