Provident Hospital. (Tribune file)

Ambulance runs to cash-strapped Provident Hospital’s emergency room are about to be halted as part of an effort by Cook County officials to cut the facility’s budget.

Beginning Saturday, the hospital at 500 E. 51st St. will no longer accept ambulance runs to the emergency room. Instead, patients will be taken to any of the six hospitals within a 5-mile radius of Provident, county health system spokesman Lucio Guerrero said. But the hospital will continue to treat people who walk into the emergency room, he said. Get the full story »