Imagine the Loiacono family of River Forest sitting around the dinner table talking about work. Nothing unusual, except the entire family – mom, dad and their three sons – are all employed at the same place: West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park.

The guys – ages 21, 22 and 24 – work part-time at the hospital, in addition to their dad, Mike, M.D., a board-certified family-medicine physician on staff for 17 years and their mom, Rose, R.N., a part-time operating room (OR) nurse who has worked on and off there for 19 years.

Did we mention that two of the boys were born at West Suburban, and their father also completed his three-year family-practice residency there?

There’s no doubt about it – the Loiacono family is totally immersed in West Suburban, a full-service hospital which opened 95 years ago. The family works and eats there, carpools together if schedules mesh and loves being part of the hospital family – taking care of neighbors and even going on family vacations with co-workers.

“We (our family) are all intertwined at West Suburban,” said Mike, who chairs the Department of Family Medicine and has a practice in Elmwood Park. “It’s our community and part of our lives.”

The Loiaconos moved to a north suburb for four years, after Mike completed his residency program, but returned in 1992, when he had joined a family-medicine practice in the area.

Joe, 24, and Max, 22, are employed as Emergency Department (ED) techs, where they do administrative work, help transport patients to X-ray, clean wounds and put on temporary casts. They both have emergency medical technician (EMT) licenses. Joe also is a massage therapist and is hoping to become a paramedic.

Max is a nursing student at West Suburban College of Nursing – following his mom’s career choice. He had been an engineering major at University of Illinois, when he switched to nursing his sophomore year and has 18 months left of school.

Nick, 21, recently joined the hospital in August as a pharmacy tech. In a six-week training program, Nick is learning about the job, which includes data entry, stocking and organizing drug stations and making rounds on floors. Nick takes classes at Triton College in River Grove and is considering a pharmacy career. Prior to this job, he had worked as a transporter and in central supply at the hospital.

“It’s a big thrill walking around the hospital,” said Nick, who enjoys his new job and said there’s teamwork at the hospital. “Someone will say, ‘I saw your brother or how’s your brother?’ They know who we are.” Employees also mention they know his dad or to say “hello” to his mother.

The parents have set high expectations for the boys, which can make it tough at times.

“I remember telling Max when he worked in the OR (during college breaks) – I don’t ever want to see you sitting down and having people say, ‘Look at how easy he’s got it,’” said Rose, who graduated from Resurrection High School in Chicago and remembers coming to West Suburban as a child. “People know you – it doesn’t mean a free pass.”

But there hasn’t been much need to lecture, because the boys are “hard workers and have good hearts,” according to Rose.

Although Joe and Max often work together on the same shift in the ED, they rarely run into the rest of the family, with Rose in the OR, Mike seeing patients on different floors and Nick in the pharmacy. On occasion, Mike said he will get a call from the ED in the middle of the night, “Hi, Dad, doctor so and so is looking for you.”

When the Loiaconos are able to sit down together for dinner, the conversation generally centers on a medical topic. But, that wasn’t always the case.

“A good example – we’d be talking about health care and the kids would say that is pretty gross, we’re trying to eat,” Mike said. “Now we talk blood and guts – it’s part of all of them.” Mike is impressed by what they are learning at their jobs.

Although they enjoy talking health care, they can’t reveal any specific information about patients because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) – the federal patient privacy law. “Someone will tell a story, but we have no idea who the person is being discussed,” Rose said.

Once a neighbor asked Rose if Mike told her she had been in his office for a medical visit. Rose said she didn’t even know her neighbor was a patient of her husband’s.

How did the boys get interested in the hospital – did their parents influence them?

“To them (Max, Joe and Nick), West Suburban is a place they know,” said Rose, noting they are familiar with doctors, their families and employees who have worked there for many years.

Rose has memories of toting her young boys to the hospital to have dinner in the cafeteria with dad, who was putting in long hours during his residency. They’d meet for pizza and then play pool in the residents’ hall on the 8th floor. Mike remembers taking Joe, then age 2, on rounds with him when he was in the residency program. Rose would sometimes bring the kids to a hospital meeting on her day off, if child care wasn’t available.

“When small, most kids want to be doctors,” said Mike, who said he is extremely proud of his sons. “But, they saw the long hours that Rose and I work. They may want to do something less difficult.”

Although the kids are still figuring out their next steps in life, all three seem to be following in their parents’ footsteps. They enjoy tending to patients and serving the community.

“All three (of us) said ‘never, never’ to health care, but it gravitated back to us,” Joe said. “Both my parents are very enthusiastic about what they do. My dad loves what he does. My parents like to be helping people.”

Nick feels right at home at West Suburban. “If I had a bed there – I’d be in it,” he said.

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About West Suburban
West Suburban Medical Center is a member of Resurrection Health Care. Ranked in the nation’s top 20 “Best Places to Work in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare magazine, Resurrection Health Care is a family of health care services providing advanced medical care and exceptional customer service with compassion and hope. Our hospitals, nursing homes, retirement communities, home health services, behavioral health programs and numerous outpatient services are conveniently located in many Chicagoland neighborhoods.

Resurrection Health Care is a not-for-profit Catholic organization sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection.

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