A new report underscores just how much small hospitals on Chicago’s South and West sides struggle financially, and what can be done to prevent them from closing. These small so-called “safety net” hospitals tend to be staples in their communities. They typically treat low-income and elderly Black and Latino patients, and often don’t have enough money flowing in to make ends meet. A new study commissioned by the Health Care Council of Chicago estimates that by 2024, a dozen of these hospitals could lose at least $1.8 billion combined. And that doesn’t even account for money hospitals lost during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they suspended money-generating surgeries and shifted patients to video and phone visits to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.