More than 200 live cockroaches were crawling through the cafeteria and patient kitchen at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center when city health inspectors showed up on Oct. 16, and what they found next got the whole operation shut down. Inspectors also discovered black slime dripping onto ice meant for patients and staff to eat, along with grease-caked equipment and structural damage that stretched across nearly every corner of the food service area.
Chicago Department of Public Health records show the Rendezvous Café and patient kitchen at the Lakeview hospital both failed the inspection, according to NBC Chicago. The roaches turned up in the main food preparation and grill area, the deep fryer area, dry storage, a valve room or closet, and the main dish room, meaning the infestation wasn't confined to one corner of the kitchen but spread across the spaces where patient meals are actually assembled.
The cafeteria's license was suspended Friday after inspectors documented the infestation and other violations, as ABC7 Chicago reported. As CBS Chicago reported, the inspection also turned up a torn door gasket on a food prep cooler and a leaking kitchen sink in the same area, on top of the pest problem.
Grease, Grime and a Slime-Covered Ice Machine
Beyond the roaches, inspectors found black slime buildup inside an ice machine, with slime dripping directly onto ice cubes intended for human consumption, the same inspection record shows. Grease had built up on cooking equipment, walls, floors and shelving, and inspectors found food debris stuck to a can opener used in daily meal prep.
Other violations piled on from there: improperly stored utensils, milk crates pressed into service as shelving, and damaged or missing floor tiles and grout throughout the kitchen. Inspectors ordered the facility to bring in a pest control company to eliminate all pest activity, and ordered staff to clean and sanitize every surface and piece of equipment before operations could resume.
April Violations Never Got Fixed
Perhaps most troubling for a hospital kitchen, the same violations from an April 15 inspection had still not been corrected months later, including dead cockroaches found beneath storage racks and near a sink, along with grease, food debris and dirt on the floors. The repeat failure suggests the pest and sanitation problems documented this month were not a sudden development but a condition inspectors had already flagged earlier in the year.
Illinois Masonic officials said the hospital is taking steps to address the inspection findings and meet requirements before safely resuming kitchen operations. Hospital officials added that patients continued to receive meals without interruption, relying on alternative food preparation and meal service arrangements while the cafeteria and patient kitchen remain closed, according to ABC7 Chicago's report.
No Timeline Yet for Reopening
The cafeteria can request another inspection once it has corrected the violations, but no reopening date or follow-up inspection timeline has been announced. Advocate Illinois Masonic also failed a health inspection back in 2014, according to a CBS News Chicago investigation, which separately found that a bureaucratic mix-up once led the city and state to each assume the other was inspecting certain hospital kitchens. That investigation prompted the Illinois Department of Public Health to instruct local health officials to inspect both public and patient kitchens going forward.
Hospital cafeterias failing inspections is not unique to Illinois Masonic. Cafeterias and food vendors at nine Chicago hospitals failed inspections in 2021, according to Chicago Eater, with Swedish Hospital and Holy Cross Hospital each failing four inspections that year and an October 2021 inspection at Swedish finding flying insects and roughly 25 cockroaches in food preparation, storage and dishwashing areas. Every hospital and vendor cited in that reporting eventually passed reinspection by the end of 2021.
A Chicago Department of Public Health spokesperson has said there is no broader trend in the number of license suspensions citywide, a comment made in connection with other recent closures, including Magnolia Bakery's temporary shutdown this year over an infestation of more than a dozen cockroaches and hundreds of small flies, according to the Chicago Tribune. The department's stated mission is to promote food safety and sanitation and prevent food-borne illness across retail food establishments, including hospitals, per the Chicago Department of Public Health.
