Cook County tries new tack to shut Oak Forest Hospital

Cook County officials are pressing state lawmakers to exempt the county's hospital system from the purview of a state regulatory board that recently rejected a plan to shutter Oak Forest Hospital. House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago, is sponsoring a measure that would exclude "public hospitals and health clinics operated by a county" with more than 3 million people from the jurisdiction of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. Cook is the only county in the state that would be affected. "The president supports the amendment," said Jessey Neves, a spokeswoman for County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, in an email. On May 10, the state board denied the county's plan to transform Oak Forest Hospital into an outpatient clinic.