HYDE PARK — University of Chicago Medicine has released new numbers about how many patients it expects to treat at its planned trauma center as it prepares for neighborhood meetings and hearings with state regulators.
The medical center announced in December it planned to open the trauma center on its Hyde Park campus instead of Holy Cross Hospital and in February released plans for $269 million in renovations for a new emergency room, cancer center and 188 additional hospital beds.
The medical center is now saying it expects more than 2,700 new patients at the hospital — at a cost of $20 million every year — just from the trauma center, with many of the new patients requiring much longer stays in the hospital than the current average.
On Thursday, the medical center announced a schedule of upcoming meetings with the public to explain how all these changes would affect the neighborhood and how patients currently use university’s hospitals.
“Community input helped shape our bold plan and will continue to be crucial as we address the growing health care needs of the South Side,” said Sharon O’Keefe, president of the medical center, in a prepared statement. “This project represents a significant investment to improve our community’s health and boost the South Side’s economic vitality, so we want to make sure our neighbors’ voices are heard.”
Medical center officials were scheduled to meet with senior groups in Hyde Park on Thursday evening and a larger community forum will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. April 21 at the K.L.E.O. Community Family Life Center, 119 E. Garfield Blvd.
Those who want to weigh in before the Illinois Department of Public Health holds its own hearings on May 10 will need to catch up on the proposal before the meeting though. The state has set a deadline of April 20 for public comment on the medical center’s proposal.
According to state records, the proposal has already received broad support from city and state lawmakers and other South Side hospitals.
“As a community hospital it is critical that we have the ability to transfer quickly and easily those patients who need a higher level of care to the nearest appropriate facility,” said Charles Holland, president and CEO of St. Bernard Hospital, in a letter to state regulators. “Because of the current lack of beds at the University of Chicago Medicine we have had difficulty transferring more complex patients in our care to UCM even though it is the closest tertiary care facility to us that is equipped to handle those complex cases.”
The university's medical center was 90 percent full on average last year and more than 10 percent of the time it was forced to send ambulances to other hospitals because it had no room to accept new patients, a point the state is expected to look into as the medical center expects significantly more patients from the trauma center.
The medical center in recent weeks released more information to the state saying it expected 2,713 trauma cases every year, with nearly three-quarters of those patients requiring a stay in the hospital of more than a week on average. Most patients, excluding neonatal care, stay at the medical center for fewer than five days, according to state data.
In February, O’Keefe said the medical center was planning to hire at least 1,000 new employees to manage the increased number of patients from the adding trauma care and the cancer center.
The trauma center will be comprised of a group of trained specialists working out of a $40 million new emergency room with specialized bays for victims of gunshot wounds and car accidents on the first floor of what is currently a parking garage at 5656 S. Maryland Ave. The trauma teams will also have more space in the Center for Care and Discovery as more patient care moves into the Mitchell hospital building when a $230 million renovation is finished in 2020.
Trauma care is expected to cost the medical center $20 million a year, which will be partially offset by treating more cancer patients.
The medical center has launched a new web site, UChicagoGetCare.org, to provide more information on the planned changes.
The medical center is asking people who want to attend the April 21 forum to RSVP on the web site.
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