Lurie Children’s Hospital is planning to build its new pediatric hospital on now-vacant land in Downers Grove near the intersection of Interstate 88 and I-355, hospital leaders revealed at a community meeting Thursday evening.
The new facility, which Lurie announced in January, would be Lurie’s first hospital with inpatient beds outside of its main location in Streeterville. Lurie is in the process of buying the land, a Lurie spokesperson said.
Lurie must still get approval from the state Health Facilities and Services Review Board and zoning approval from Downers Grove before moving forward with construction. If Lurie secures the approvals, the new hospital could open in early 2029. The hospital’s main entrance would be off of Lacey Road.
Lurie leaders disclosed the exact location of the planned hospital at a community meeting in Downers Grove on Thursday evening, along with more details about the new facility – which comes as community hospitals across the state have shuttered their pediatric inpatient units.
The new hospital would likely have 48 inpatient beds and an emergency department with nearly 40 rooms, said Alex Miller, Lurie’s chief financial officer. A large clinic building with about 60 rooms, imaging, labs and pharmacy services would sit next to the hospital.
Lurie expects more than 100,000 visits by patients to the hospital each year, including more than 50,000 visits a year to the new emergency department, Miller said.
“We actually do believe over time this emergency department will be busier than the one downtown,” Miller said.
The hospital would be for patients who are low-acuity, meaning patients who don’t need the highest, most complex level of care, which is offered at Lurie’s downtown hospital.
The new hospital, for example, would be ideal for children with respiratory illnesses who may need monitoring and extra oxygen, children who are dehydrated, and those who have infections that require antibiotics administered via an IV, said Dr. Marcelo Malakooti, Lurie’s chief medical officer.
But the new hospital would also have a helipad in case a child needs to be transferred rapidly, by helicopter, to Lurie’s downtown location, Malakooti said.
Funding for the hospital would come primarily from three sources: Lurie’s operating revenue, bonds and money raised through philanthropy efforts, Miller said. Lurie is not seeking any financial support from the state for the facility, he said.
Lurie is aiming to raise $100 million through philanthropy efforts alone, said Dr. Tom Shanley, Lurie president and CEO. Lurie leaders have not yet publicly shared what they anticipate the project will cost as a whole.
“If anybody out there wants to name it, come see me,” Shanley joked to a crowd of about 100 people who gathered to hear more about the new hospital Thursday evening, drawing laughter.
Lurie leaders say the new hospital would allow children to be hospitalized closer to home. About 47% of children in the western suburbs now leave their communities if they need overnight hospital care, according to Lurie.
Downers Grove resident Rae Gutrich, who has two children, called the prospect of a new children’s hospital in the western suburbs “exciting.”
“It’s so great we have this in the city,” Gutrich said of Lurie Children’s Hospital, “but it’s just wonderful that we’re going to have the ability to zip somewhere super close and have that peace of mind.”
Molly Beck Dean, who attended the meeting Thursday evening, is the director of a nonprofit that focuses on children in West Chicago called WeGo Together for Kids. She said she hopes to see Lurie tap into the existing network of organizations serving DuPage County. Lurie leaders said Thursday they’ve already been talking with local school districts and colleges.
“I know they provide excellent care, and it’s terrible schlepping downtown,” Beck Dean said. “Downers Grove is accessible.”
Plans for the new facility come as community hospitals in Illinois have been closing their pediatric inpatient units in recent years.
Since 2012, more than 20 community hospitals in the Chicago area have shuttered their pediatric units, according to a previous application for changes filed with the state board by Lurie.
Community hospitals often point to low numbers of pediatric patients when closing the units. In addition, more procedures can now be done on an outpatient basis, without an overnight stay. Hospitals may also be seeing fewer pediatric patients because of competition from large children’s hospitals such as Lurie, Advocate Children’s Hospital and UChicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital.
Hospitals increasingly struggled to continue providing pediatric services around the time of the pandemic, Shanley said.
“Many health systems needed the beds for adults with COVID, and when you have an adult in the bed on Medicare, they realize, ‘Boy, I get a lot more money from Medicare than (for) a child in a bed from Medicaid,’ and it became increasingly challenging to continue to sustain pediatric services,” Shanley said Thursday. “We see that as a responsibility to fill.”
The new Downers Grove hospital is part of Lurie’s larger expansion plans. Lurie recently opened a 75,000-square-foot outpatient center in Schaumburg, which is now one of more than 20 Lurie outpatient centers across the Chicago area. Lurie has also partnered with 10 Chicago-area hospitals and plans to open a community health center in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood in the fall.
“Lurie Children’s is no longer just a hospital but we are a complex health system that can cover the entire spectrum of pediatric care and can bring enormous resources to elevate the health and well-being of the kids in every community that we’re privileged to serve moving forward,” Shanley said.
