A state board unanimously approved the University of Chicago Medicine's application to expand its emergency department and bring adult trauma and specialty care to Chicago's South Side.
"The board's vote today will have a significant impact on our community," Sharon O'Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center, said in a statement announcing the vote. "Our community needs and deserves equal access to quality health care, and we are now one giant step closer to being able to offer that access at UChicago Medicine."
Approval from the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board gives UChicago Medicine the go ahead to break ground on the $269 million expansion called Get CARE. The Get CARE project includes the addition of 188 inpatient beds, an expanded emergency department with four trauma bays and a dedicated cancer treatment center.
The system is also seeking approval from the Chicago Trauma Network and Illinois Department of Public Health to become a Level I adult trauma center, which many consider a much-needed resource on the city's South Side.
The ED is slated to open late 2017, and the adult trauma center several months after. The cancer treatment center will not open until 2022, according to the system. The expansion will add 1,000 permanent positions and create 400 construction jobs. Staffing plans are underway and UChicago Medicine has launched a national search for a director of its new trauma program.
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