Provident Hospital faces partial A/C outage amid heat wave; Repairs underway

CHICAGO — Patients, staff and medical personnel in a Washington Park hospital are coping with steamy conditions Monday afternoon as crews work to repair a partial air conditioning breakdown.

Patients at Provident Hospital of Cook County, located at 500 E 51^st Street, complained as the hospital deals with air conditioning problems that may not be resolved for another day.

“I got here at 12 today and it was really, really warm. Very humid,” Tracy Winford said.

A spokesperson for the hospital told WGN-TV in a written statement that one of the building’s eight air conditioning handlers is out of commission.

Hospital maintenance staff are running portable air conditioners to augment the air conditioning system. They say they are doing hourly checks throughout the facility to ensure temperatures remain within a safe range.

“It’s a little warm in there, but they are doing a pretty good job of having little portable air conditioners all over the place,” Eddie Meeks said.

Meeks says it was warm up on the sixth floor of the community hospital, but he appreciates the effort hospital staff has gone through to make the most out of the situation.

“There’s one [portable air conditioner] in the waiting room, I see there are a few in the lobby,” he said.

A hospital spokesperson is confident their mitigation efforts and tomorrow night’s cooler temperatures will help improve the situation as crews complete repairs.