Facility Tours

The most innovative facilities in the greater Chicago area will welcome you to tour their locations and discuss their design, planning and construction choices. Enjoy this excellent educational, inspirational, and networking opportunity. Buses will depart from the Navy Pier promptly at 11:30 AM and return at approximately 3:30 pm on Thursday, September 11, 2008. Facility Tours are available to Full Conference Attendees only and the Facility Tour is an additional cost.

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Like many suburban Chicago hospitals, St. Alexius Medical Center had started its life as a for-profit inpatient hospital in the 1970ąs. Over time, medical office buildings were built near the hospital, but no strategy had developed with regard to providing convenient access to ancillary services that were provided within the hospital. At the same time, due to reimbursements, an outpatient strategy was becoming much more attractive. Therefore, it became necessary to think about how to revitalize the campus without abandoning existing assets.

Over the last three years, administration has implemented the first phase of a facility master plan, which helps to remedy the situation that had developed. A new outpatient portal has been constructed to link the existing hospital and medical office buildings with a new medical office building creating an ambulatory mall with new “front doors” to ancillary diagnostic and treatment services. As the inpatient census has increased, patient nits that had been converted to non-revenue support space have been renovated and put back into service including newly designed units to cater to the hospital's strength in Pediatrics and to support the new Bariatric service line.

This tour will focus on the new outpatient strategy. Highlights will include outpatient registration, laboratory, Cardiac Catheterization, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Breast Center, Patient Education, and Imaging. Some of the inpatient areas, such as the lobby, healing garden, pediatrics and medical / surgical patient units will also be available for viewing.

The Loyola University Hospital Tower is a 235,000 SF world class facility designed by Pratt Design Studio in joint venture with HOK. This major expansion includes a new hospital entrance lobby, waiting areas, a Heart & Vascular Center with eight Interventional Rooms, Noninvasive Cardiac Diagnostics space, Pre/Post Procedural Bays, Surgery Admitting Center and an MRI on the First Floor. The Second Floor includes 12 Operating Rooms, Post Anesthesia Recovery Unit, Inpatient Satellite Pharmacy and a Frozen Section Lab. A Sterile Reprocessing Center is located on the Lower Level and 64 Private Inpatient Units are located on the upper floors. New visitor and patient vertical circulation cores are strategically placed to promote ideal patient, staff and visitor flow while nature inspired finishes provide a soothing, warm space.

The form of the new building relates to the existing campus and contributes toward a new presence and image. A key design feature integrated within the building exterior and interior is the “Unique Identifier” – a custom design pattern incorporating icons significant to the hospital. This pattern is incorporated in the exterior precast concrete columns and is featured in the main lobby, waiting areas and reception desk details.

Building on more than a century of excellence in caring for women and their families, the Prentice Women's Hospital leads the nation in providing comprehensive healthcare for women at all stages of life. This remarkable facility and its related women's health programs respond to a woman's unique preferences and healthcare needs.

As Northwestern Memorial's second state-of-the-art hospital, the Prentice enables a unified approach to healthcare both inside the new facility and throughout the Northwestern medical campus.

With a capacity for 13,600 deliveries per year, the Prentice continues to be the largest birthing center in Illinois and the Midwest and is poised to be among the top five in the nation by volume of births. A family-focused environment for critically ill infants is provided in the Renée Schine Crown Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the largest in Illinois and among the largest in the nation. The Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center has consolidated its services into one location on the fourth floor. The center provides essential services in breast cancer detection and treatment in collaboration with the Lurie Cancer Center.