A 343-bed Granite City hospital has acknowledged delaying employee pay, with workers reporting that at least one paycheck could not be cashed. The emergency payroll fix now involves a promised $1 million loan from the hospital owner and a planned overhaul of its billing operation.
Employees at Gateway Regional Medical Center contacted First Alert 4 after they said they had not been paid. One worker told the station a bank rejected an attempt to cash a paycheck, adding immediate financial pressure for staff at the Metro East facility.
The situation comes three years after Los Angeles-based American Healthcare Systems completed its acquisition of Gateway. The Belleville News-Democrat reported at the time that the purchase was finalized in March 2023, placing the Granite City hospital under the growing operator’s control…