Prairie Center detox unit closed, reducing choices for addicts

 

URBANA – Jim Ellis is waiting for the full effect of cuts in state funding for social services to make their way to his emergency-room door.

But Ellis, the chairman of emergency medicine for Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana and Provena United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville, knows they're coming.

That's because the Prairie Center Health Systems was forced to close its detoxification unit at 122 W. Hill St. in downtown Champaign on Aug. 1. Last calendar year, the unit had 803 admissions – alcoholics and drug addicts who came there to sober up for an average of three to five days.

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