Advocate Trinity Hospital on Chicago's South Side will be replaced with a new facility as part of a $1 donation … (+)
Health care lawyer
The Chicago-area health care system is spending $1 billion to reinvent health care on the city's South Side in neighborhoods where there is a 30-year life expectancy gap compared to the wealthier North Side.
Advocate Health Care's investment will include $300 million for land purchases and related spending to build a new hospital that will replace a facility more than a century old. More than $500 million more will be allocated to expanding outpatient care, which executives say will be “an integral part of the community.” More than $200 million more will be invested in hospital and outpatient programs and services designed in part to address social determinants of health such as expanding access to healthy foods, housing, transportation and prescription medications.
It is one of the largest community-focused health care investments in the country, industry analysts and participants say, and comes as medical providers invest in a range of services from food and nutrition to housing to make sure patients get needed health care. The right care in the right place at the right time. Health insurers are also increasingly pushing to address social determinants of health beyond hospitalizations, physician services, prescription drugs, and medical devices.
“We are far ahead of where we were 50 years ago technologically and in terms of the potential for decentralized care, and I think the timing of this new effort is good as long as the principles are not overly enamored with giant facilities,” he said. Jim Onland, President of Health Capital Group and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Healthcare Finance.
In Advocate's case, executives say they are not focused on large facilities but are investing in a “wellness model” that participating executives say included several months of meetings with community leaders and South Side residents throughout 2024.
A much larger amount would be spent on outpatient care and related programs than a replacement hospital for the old 115-year-old Advocate Trinity Hospital building. For example, 10 new sites will be created to “support neighborhood health care” to “serve the entire family,” including the first site next year at the South Side YMCA.
“We have built a model that gets to the heart of chronic disease and wellness by helping South Side residents live their healthiest lives,” said Michelle Blakely, president of Advocate Trinity Hospital, when the project was announced this month. “We need to provide the community with the resources to stay healthy — where we live, work, play and worship — and that requires a comprehensive plan.”
Advocate Health Care is part of the larger multi-state Advocate Health conglomerate, which is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and formed in 2022 as a result of the blockbuster merger of Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health. Advocate Health Care remains the largest provider of medical care in the Chicago and Illinois area with more than 250 sites of care including 11 hospitals.
“The health disparity gap that South Side communities face keeps me up at night,” said Dea Nichols, president of Advocate Health Care, which oversees operations in Illinois. “I am passionate about everyone getting the care they need – equitable care.”
Advocate Health Care has entered into an agreement to buy 23 acres of land on Chicago's South Side near Lake Michigan where it plans to build a 52-bed hospital, 26 medical-surgical beds, a four-bed dialysis unit and a 16-room emergency room, executives said. Advocate Healthcare said in a statement, citing data from the Illinois Department of Public Health showing less than half of hospital beds on Chicago's South Side are being used.
“For more than 30 years, this vacant site has been a symbol of the disinvestment and missed opportunities that have so deeply impacted the South Side,” Chicago Alderman Greg Mitchell, who represents the area, said of the $300 million in spending on the Southeast District. The entire East. Southern Steel Works site near the lake.
The development process involved more than 20 listening sessions and involved hundreds of South Side residents, executives and community leaders said. “This visionary initiative, rooted in the voices and ideas of South Side residents, directly targets systemic inequities that have persisted for generations,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
The South Side of Chicago has been hit hard by the loss of medical care providers. In particular, more than 20 hospitals have closed since 2000 in the Chicago area, most of them on the South Side, according to a 2022 report in the Chicago Policy Review.
The loss of medical care providers has led to disparities where “the number of diabetes-related deaths on the South Side is four times the number of deaths on the North Side,” Advocate said in announcing its investment. Advocate executives said more than 84% of South Side hospital residents also have another chronic condition including high blood pressure, diabetes, congestive heart failure, mental health needs, substance abuse issues and kidney failure.
To be sure, there are notable differences not only in the quality of care provided between the North and South sides of Chicago that have been well documented by national studies and health experts, but also in the number of health care professionals and physicians willing to practice health care on low-income people. South side.
Last year, for example, a 31-page report from the American Medical Association and the Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago showed that the closure of OB-GYN facilities had created “a number of disparities” in maternal and child health on Chicago’s South and West Sides. The report was supported by the March of Dimes.
“The health of medically underserved patients and the health of their children suffers when pregnant patients cannot access care in their communities,” said AMA President-elect Bobby Mukamala, MD when the report was released. “With the closure of healthcare facilities forcing patients to travel to obtain needed care, patients are experiencing worse health outcomes.”
At the same time, the lack of full obstetric care services in these areas makes it difficult to recruit medical providers and doctors in particular, something that is unlikely to improve any time soon.
“The associated implications include a decrease in the hiring of new doctors in certain specialties such as emergency medicine, family medicine and obstetrics in these communities,” Mukamala said. “This has created a cycle of disjointed and disconnected care for patients in these neighborhoods, and a higher level of burnout for doctors and clinicians leaving the profession altogether.”
But the lawyer's efforts have drawn praise from elected officials across party and local lines in a city and state known for its rough-and-tumble politics.
“Advocate Health Care’s significant investment in Chicago’s South Side will expand access to world-class health care and represents a critical step toward advancing equity – a powerful reminder of what is possible when we prioritize health and well-being,” said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker: “From our communities.” “In addition to expanding access to state-of-the-art health care facilities, this investment will also expand workforce opportunities in the region.”
