HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., May 1 /PRNewswire/ — Alexian Brothers Hospital Network leaders were joined by elected officials, community representatives, and supporters today for the announcement of new Women’s and Children’s Hospitals to be located on the campus of St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070501/AQTU146)
“The nearly two million residents of Chicago’s northwest corridor are facing significant health challenges in the immediate future,” said Penny Davis, who has been named chief executive officer of the new Alexian Brothers Women’s and Children’s Hospitals. “Limited access to comprehensive pediatric health services in this region, combined with the tremendous population growth, is impacting the already burdened families of critically ill children.”
Presently, critically ill children of families from Chicago’s suburbs must be transferred to specialized children’s hospitals downtown, where parents have to contend with significant travel and accommodation concerns just to be by their child’s bedside. For families with multiple children, it is especially difficult when travel times to hospitals are extensive.
“These children need a medical home where they can receive comprehensive state-of-the-art care,” explained Davis. “A place close to their home in their own community.”
The new $66 million, 140,000 square-foot, Alexian Brothers Women’s and Children’s Hospitals will be staffed by more than 100 pediatric and women’s sub-specialists, and will include all private rooms, Level III neonatal intensive care private rooms, a larger pediatric intensive care unit and observation rooms. Women’s services will include LDR (labor, delivery, and recovery) rooms, C-Section rooms, and 42 private postpartum beds.
During the announcement Alexian Brothers Hospital Network officials explained the need for the new suburban services citing an estimated 15 percent growth in neonatal discharges over the next ten years in the region, as well as an expected increase of low birth weight babies and pre-term births. Alexian Brothers Hospital Network is projecting an increase in deliveries at their existing northwest suburban hospitals in Elk Grove Village and Hoffman Estates from nearly 6,000 to 7,500 over just the next several years.
“Twenty percent of U.S. households have a least one child with special needs,” said Davis. “More complex births require more complex obstetrical and pediatric services, and these new hospitals will be able to provide that much needed care.” Alexian Brothers Hospital Network has already begun recruiting top neonatal physicians and surgeons from around the Midwest to staff the new hospitals and serve the increasing needs of the area.
The Alexian Brothers Women’s and Children’s Hospitals must go through the Certificate of Need (CON) approval process governed by the Illinois Department of Public Health. However, the standards are different since the hospital will be under the St. Alexius Medical Center license.
Officials will break ground for the new hospitals later this year, with a planned opening in 2010. The new Alexian Brothers Women’s and Children’s Hospitals will be the only specialized distinct children’s hospital in Chicago’s Northwest corridor.
The Alexian Brothers Hospital Network (ABHN) is comprised of Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village, St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital in Hoffman Estates, and Alexian Rehabilitation Hospital in Elk Grove Village. Together these four hospitals are known for advanced medicine and providing unsurpassed treatment and care to the nearly two million residents of Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
The Alexian Brothers Hospital Network is a subsidiary of Alexian Brothers Health System, a diversified Catholic healthcare system based in Arlington Heights, Illinois and sponsored by the Immaculate Conception Province of the Congregation of Alexian Brothers. The system provides acute care, elderly services and a variety of community-based healthcare programs through facilities in Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.
Photo: Newscom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070501/AQTU146AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, [email protected]
Alexian Brothers Hospital Network
CONTACT: Matt Wakely, Director of Public Relations of Alexian BrothersHospital Network, +1-847-385-7176
Web site: http://www.alexianhealthsystem.org/
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