Franciscan Health Hammond to cease ambulance service Dec. 23

Ambulance service to Franciscan Health Hammond will come to an end at 6 a.m. Dec. 23, as the hospital prepares to close its inpatient and emergency care services, according to a Franciscan Health spokesperson.

In 2021, Franciscan officials announced that the 260-bed hospital would be downsized to a 10-bed inpatient department with emergency services, but last month, the Franciscan board voted to cease inpatient admissions, shutter the emergency department and move its services to Munster and Dyer.

Franciscan Health Hammond, Dyer and Munster interim President and CEO Barbara Anderson said in a Nov. 3 news release that a decline in patients and staffing shortages led to this decision.

“In the last 15 months, we have seen inpatient volume at Franciscan Health Hammond drop to an average of 2.5 patients per day,” Anderson said in the release.

Franciscan Health confirmed the end of ambulance services to its Hammond location, but declined to answer questions from the Post-Tribune about the fate of its Hammond emergency room staff and future patient care. In 2021, Franciscan confirmed that the downsizing will affect about 300 employees, but it expected that many of them could move into positions at other Franciscan hospitals.

The Alliance has said the cost to upgrade older facilities like the century-old Hammond hospital prompted the opening of a new Franciscan Health hospital in Michigan City and the current construction of a new hospital in Crown Point. In 2020, Franciscan Health officials broke ground on a new $200 million, 500,000-square-foot Franciscan Health Crown Point facility on the southeast corner of Interstate 65 and U.S. 231.

“Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Calumet City, Illinois, residents have all depended on this hospital for 120-plus years,” State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, said in November about the hospital’s closure. “While they will still be able to access care in Munster and Dyer, I fear the additional travel time will cost lives and result in worse health outcomes.”

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. has been a vocal opponent of Franciscan Health Alliance’s plans.

“This announcement has left Lake County’s largest city without a hospital for its 80,000 residents and it underscores the problem in America — an America that now has two health care systems — one if you are wealthy and one if you are not,” McDermott said last month.

Freelance reporters Michelle L. Quinn and Karen Caffarini contributed to this report.