Inside the Abandoned MetroSouth Hospital in Blue Island, From the ER Down to the Morgue

MetroSouth Medical Center in Blue Island closed in 2019. I put that down to greed, and the news footage that opens the video shows local officials, doctors and residents asking the owners not to shut it.

We went through the whole building, from the ER to the operating rooms to the morgue in the basement. What made the video was how much still worked. Lights came on in several rooms, an elevator opened when we turned it on, and a morgue cooler still rolled out.

What we found

The video opens on clips from the closure. The hospital had stopped taking new patients, tape covered the ER signs, and a reporter says a purchase agreement of about $20 million fell apart over a demand for a $1 million nonrefundable deposit.

The first rooms were ER rooms, mostly cleaned out, with a smashed TV. Past an authorized personnel only sign was a monitoring room with a blood pressure cuff and a few screens. I think they were taking it apart to sell it. I tried a switch and an exam light came on.

Radiology was the best part of the first floor. There were lead bags, glasses for ray shielding, a technician station with four monitors, and boxes of tubing and monitor kits. A sheet of notes still said Jenny’s notes. Nearly every X ray room had its controls and viewing window. One room was already being stripped, and I found a radioactive materials sign.

I took one room marked blessed for a chapel and it was a women’s wellness center. Then came the cardiovascular center with echo rooms and a cardiac cath lab. I turned on the elevator and it opened by itself, which was more welcoming than I wanted.

The directory listed admin, conference rooms, a gift shop, the lobby and radiology. There was a wall of donors and sponsors, plus old photos of the hospital, one of them a patient in a bed. The gift shop was empty and the cafe had nothing left. The fire panels beeped the whole time.

The first floor also had mammography, a darkroom, ultrasound rooms and a food court where a Subway was still set up. Then I found an MRI suite covered in warning signs, which is the coolest thing I’ve found in a hospital. The exam rooms had powered beds and monitors, and in one spot a flooded wall was collapsing, maybe from a burst pipe.

Upstairs, Same Day Surgery had a nurse’s station and a row of suites. Suite nine was locked and suite ten was not. The surgical lights turned on, though the older rooms’ lights did not. One room smelled burnt, and a heater was running somewhere.

The basement began with a maintenance office. There was a conference room with blueprints, a fridge with a half full soda, a stash of keys I called the keys to the whole hospital, and a coil of copper on the floor like a hula hoop. Then the morgue, with a biohazard sticker and a formaldehyde warning on the door. The roll out coolers still worked, and one slid out and almost fell. It was heavy. The steel table looked solid and I guessed it was worth about $600. Near it was a data center with cameras still running and a ridiculous number of wifi extenders, then the pharmacy. A friend had told us the rest of the basement was empty.

Why MetroSouth is abandoned

MetroSouth had 314 beds and was owned by Quorum Health of Brentwood, Tennessee. In June 2019 Quorum filed to close it, and employees were told in August that it would end on September 30. Quorum said it had lost physician surgical coverage and was understaffed. Blue Island’s mayor said the hospital was reportedly losing about $10 million a year, and an official called the move to stop taking new patients a calculated tactic to force the closure. More than 800 employees were laid off on October 1.

ABC7 described it as once the largest employer in Blue Island.

In March 2020 the city announced a deal to reopen the 12 acre campus for coronavirus patients, and a developer bought it that year. In my description I said it briefly reopened. Reporting from 2026 says it was prepared for COVID patients but never used to house any.

What happens next

The buyer was Lockwood Development Partners, which paid more than $20 million in 2020 and planned senior and veteran housing. In January 2026 it was reported to have defaulted on $44.2 million in debt. Its president then called a data center the best use for the 12.5 acres and the vacant 550,000 square foot hospital building. By April 2026 Blue Island’s mayor said the city had only a general inquiry and no formal proposal, and the city administrator said Lockwood and its partners were no longer involved.

The surgical lights still turned on when we were there, and as of April 2026 the building had no confirmed plan.