Heart, cancer care help lead Chicago hospital’s revival

Six years after Chicago's storied Mercy Hospital and Medical Center teetered on the brink of financial collapse, Sister Sheila Lyne no longer has to pray for money to pay bondholders. The 72-year-old nun is in her second stint as chief executive of Chicago's oldest chartered hospital, and has guided the 370-bed facility through perhaps its most difficult period since it was founded. The hospital is now poised to embark on one of its biggest expansions in years, a $24 million capital improvement plan that includes renovating the cardiac intensive care floor, a gastrointestinal procedure lab and the obstetrics unit, which will convert to all private rooms to meet the needs of a projected doubling to 4,000 births a year.