University of Chicago Medical Center
Address
5841 S. Maryland
Chicago, IL 60637
Census Tract
17031836200
Poverty Rate
Median Income
48.32%
Total Project Cost
$140,000,000
Federal NMTC Financing
$6,500,000
State NMTC Financing
$5,000,000
Project Completion
Overview
UDF provided financing to the University of Chicago Medical Center (UChicago Medicine) for completion of multiple projects. First, UDFs funds were utilized to relocate 122 medical beds and 32 ICU beds from theexisting Mitchell Hospital to the 3rd and fourth floors of the recently opened University of Chicago Medical Center for Care and Discovery (CCD). The CCDs third floor provides care for patients in UChicago Medicine multi-specialty surgical units and the Burn and Complex Wound Center. The fourth floor accommodates patients of the Heart and Vascular Center. Each floor has 98 patient bedsfor intensive care, medical-surgical patients, those needing 24-hour observation and isolation cases.UDF funding was used to the construct new inpatient units and add 12 ICU beds on both of these floors in the 1.1 million-square-foot building that were deliberately left vacant during the CCDs initial construction to give the medical center more flexibility to meet the anticipated growing demand formedical care. When it first opened in 2013 the CCD was the single largest expansion in UChicago Medicine history.
The second phase of this project utilized UDF funding to transfer the outdated Labor and Delivery department from Mitchell Hospital to the more modern Comer Center for Children which is adjacent to the old site. Its location inside of Comer Children’s means newborns have immediate access to specially trained neonatologists in the new 47 bed intensive care nursery and the pediatric operating rooms, which are critical advantages for babies born there. This new section features 9 private delivery suites designed specifically for giving birth in a nurturing and supportive environment with family present, labor and delivery rooms, 2 cesarean section rooms, 5 triage rooms and 5 antenataland postnatal rooms. After birth, new mothers recover in private suites in the new Family Birth Center’s Mother and Baby Unit. The unit provides a state-of-the-art setting for mothers to heal while bonding with and nurturing their newborns. The 25,000-square foot Family Birth Center located inside Comer Children’s Hospital opened in September 2016 and brings an extremely customizable birth experience to women on the South Side and south suburbs.
Finally, UDFs investment will be used to construct a new Level 1 adult trauma center on Chicago’s south side. When completed, the trauma center will have 41 treatment stations, 12 urgent carestations, 4 resuscitation bays, and both biohazard containment and treatment facilities. This facility will meet a growing in this community where ER visits have been up 5.5% annually over the past 5 years. The new emergency department is scheduled to open in January 2018 and the adult trauma program several months later
Ground was broken in the Fall of 2016 and marked the first major step in implementing UChicago Medicine’s $269 million Get CARE plan–which will dramatically increase access to emergency, trauma and specialty care on Chicago’s South Side and includes a dedicated cancer hospital. The GetCARE plan stands for: Community—commitment to our neighbors, Access—providing equal access tocare for South Siders, Reliability—our doors are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to all whoneed care and Excellence—life-changing care for anyone who needs it. The new emergency department is scheduled to open in January 2018 and the adult trauma program several months later. The ED project is expected to cost $39 million to build.
About the Center for Care and Discovery/UChicago Medicine:
Our new hospital is a 10-story hospital for the future that serves as the new core of the campus of the University of Chicago Medicine. An architectural and technological tour de force, our new hospital provides a home for complex specialty care with a focus on cancer, gastrointestinal disease, neuroscience, advanced surgery and high-technology medical imaging.
Our new hospital contains 240 single-occupancy inpatient rooms including 52 intensive care beds; space for 28 operating rooms with leading-edge technology; and an integrated diagnostic andinterventional platform including cardiac, gastrointestinal, neurological and vascular services. The building also has two floors of expansion space that could be used for additional patient care units aswell as future leading-edge, technology-based interventional or surgical suites.
In addition to operational efficiency and architectural quality, our new hospital has the internal capacity to rapidly and economically adjust to changes in technology and medicine, and to our facility needs for decades to come.
The University of Chicago Medicine & Biological Sciences is one of Americas leading academic medical institutions. It comprises the Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division and University of Chicago Medical Center. In addition to being a non-profit teaching and research facility, it provides distinct services to the community, including the South Sides only burn unit and pediatric trauma center, a neonatal intensive care unit, comprehensive emergency departments for adults and children, and the city’s only hospital-based emergency helicopter service.
Project Financing
UDF utilized IL state and federal NMTCs in order to provide University of Chicago Medicine with two loans totaling $10,000,000. These loans incorporate many better-than-market features, include rates more than 50% below market, interest only for the entire term, and debt service coverage lower than standard.
Community Impact
The property is located in a severely distressed census tract, with a poverty rate of nearly 40% of the benchmark and is in a federally-designated federally underserved area. UChicago Medicine is expanding to fulfillits commitment to treating the most difficult problems in their community.
.The project is expected to have tremendous impact in an area where services for a Level1 adult trauma center along with other vital medical services are sorely lacking. Most of the patients in theLabor and Delivery section are high risk pregnancies suffering from obesity, preeclampsia, and other diseases that are epidemic in low income populations. The obstetrics team at UChicago Medicine is committed to providing the best possible care for all pregnant women in the Chicagoland area. Similarly, the trauma center treats an increasing number of gunshot and blunt force trauma victims. The additional beds brought to the CCD help address capacity issues that have been limiting patients’ access to care and straining the network of providers, as ambulances are diverted elsewhere and community hospitals are unable to transfer patients in need of complex care to UChicago Medicine. UDFs investment will help UChicago Medicine broaden its ability to treat these issues.
Creating this new institution has made UChicago Medicine an economic engine, fueling minority- and women-owned businesses in the Chicago area. To date, millions have been awarded and paid incontracts to minority- and women-owned business enterprises, such as material suppliers, construction contractors and professional services firms, and paid in wages to minority and women laborers. 40% of construction contracts awarded went to minority and women-owned businessenterprises. UChicago Medicine is a bold embodiment of the Universitys commitment to technical sophistication in science and healthcare, coupled with our high standards of service, patient safety and clinical quality. The innovative hospital uniquely benefits current and future generations of patients from the South Side, the greater Chicago area and around the world.
Building the new emergency department is expected to establish more than 1,000 permanent positions and 400 construction jobs, representing a significant investment in the South Side. The advanced and enlarged emergency department is projected to treat an additional 25,000 patientvisits a year by 2021. More than 2,000 adult trauma patients are expected in the first full year of trauma center designation.