Northwestern Medicine plans $100M outpatient center

Northwestern Medicine plans to spend greater than $100 million to build a 120,000-square-foot outpatient care center in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood — after going through previous criticism that it hasn’t finished sufficient to serve sufferers on the South Side.

The proposal nonetheless must be authorized by the state Health Facilities and Services Review Board. Pending that approval, development might start subsequent summer time, and the ability might open in the summertime of 2025 on the 4800 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue.

The facility would come with a direct care center, major care, specialty care, pharmacy companies, mammograms, lab checks, chemotherapy and packages to advertise neighborhood well being. The center is anticipated to serve greater than 50,000 individuals a year.

“This new advanced outpatient care center will provide patients with access to world-class care without having to leave their community,” mentioned Dean Harrison, CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, in a information launch.

Northwestern has been criticized in recent times for focusing a lot of its {dollars} on the town’s downtown, North Side and suburbs with out doing sufficient for sufferers on the South and West sides of the town — one thing Northwestern leaders have lengthy refuted.

Leaders of SEIU Healthcare Illinois blasted Northwestern in 2020 when Northwestern introduced plans to spend greater than $100 million to broaden care at its downtown hospital and open a medical office constructing in Bloomingdale. The SEIU is a union that represents staff at Northwestern Memorial, together with housekeepers, licensed nursing assistants and dietary staff.

SEIU leaders mentioned on the time they wished to see Northwestern build amenities to take care of sufferers on the town’s West and South sides, reasonably than in prosperous suburbs, partly to serve areas the place a lot of its staff dwell.

Harrison, nevertheless, mentioned within the information launch that Northwestern has partnered with Bronzeville neighborhood organizations for greater than 20 years to advertise the well being and wellness of South Side residents.

Since 1999, Northwestern has labored with the Near North Health Service Corporation to offer companies on the Near North’s Komed Holman Health Center within the South Side Oakland neighborhood, which gives companies together with mammograms, colonoscopies, x-rays, psychological well being care and eye care.

Northwestern has additionally partnered with Bright Star Community Outreach to assist the Urban Resilience Network Center in Bronzeville, which supplies counseling and different companies, and to recruit Bronzeville residents to work at Northwestern.

Northwestern can also be a part of Chicago HEAL (Hospital Engagement, Action and Leadership), an effort amongst giant space hospitals, launched by Sen. Dick Durbin, to enhance well being fairness in 18 of Chicago’s neighborhoods with the very best charges of violence, poverty and inequality.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot praised Northwestern’s new project in Bronzeville, saying in a information launch it will likely be a “welcome addition” to different developments within the Cottage Grove Corridor, together with Shops on Lofts on forty seventh Street, the Lillian Marcie Theater Project and the upcoming Brightstar Turn Center.

Northwestern’s proposed facility additionally aligns geographically with the mayor’s $1.4 billion INVEST South/West project, which goals to reverse a long time of private and non-private disinvestment on 12 business corridors inside 10 South and West Side neighborhood areas, in line with the information launch.

More to come back.