Two miles from Mercy Hospital is the Fuller Park neighbor where the life expectancy is 67 years. Drive 30 minutes in any direction and the life expectancy dramatically increases, by as much as 23 years in some parts of the Greater Chicago Area. This results in approximately 15,000 Years of Potential Life lost for this community (from the Mercy CHN). Imagine the community development, family connections, education attainment and business growth that can result from a cumulative of 15,000 years of human effort. This is the source of my community’s suffering. Fixing healthcare will directly affect the economic recovery of these neighborhoods.   

These outcomes have combined to create a Healthcare Desert on the Southside. Due to many contributing factors, this Desert is where low birth weight, heart disease, cancer, diabetes-related, stroke, drug-abuse and now COVID-19 persist at higher rates compared to adjacent neighborhoods, Chicago, and the Nation.

With the proposed closing of Mercy Hospital, now is the time for officials to think creatively to find innovative solutions to fix not only the system that has made it difficult for Mercy to stay open but to also fix the system that has produce the poor health outcomes on the Chicago Southside.

We envision these solutions will reinvest dollars in primary care, integrated care and health awareness. These solutions must also use technology and partnerships to create greater access to specialty and emergency care. And local ownership through decision making and employee stock options must be considered. 

With this petition, urge the Governor and Mayor to 1) SAVE MERCY HOSPITAL and 2) Invest in solutions that heal, not band-aids that mask.

For Black Lives to Matter, Our Health Must Matter.