By Ronald Roenigk
Publisher
Plans for razing buildings at the Saint Joseph Hospital campus in Lincoln Park reported last week in this newspaper were inaccurate. While Resurrection Health Care is moving forward with a planned development for their signature lakefront property, none of the current buildings is slated for demolition. [See correction.]
During an interview Monday, Saint Joseph Hospital's CEO Ron Struxness and legal counsel Donna Pugh, of the law firm Vedder Price, talked at length on their near term and long term plans for the hospital's physical structures.
In fact no structures and/or buildings are slated to be demolished, least of all the main structure at 2900 N. Lake Shore Dr. "We're doing a small addition on the north side of the main building, adding two floors of parking to our garage [adding 259 spaces] and a glass connector from the garage to the hospital: it's some upgrading and remodeling but nothing out of the envelope," said Struxness in response to reports in last week's Inside.
He expects that these first efforts will start sometime next year and said that they hoped to have the additional parking space available within a year. The balance of the plan "is a function of money and need," said Struxness.
Resurrection Health Care assumed ownership of the Saint Joseph Hospital facility in July of 2001 and shortly thereafter undertook an assessment of the physical plant. It is the results of this study that form the basis for the hospital's plan for the medical campus going forward.
The absorption of the physicians, staff and patients from the shuttered Columbus Hospital by Saint Joseph Hospital created new demands for space. "It ate up all our space and made parking an issue," said Struxness.
Much of the near term work will be to remodel their current structures to accommodate new trends in medical care, including greater demands on outpatient procedures. "Medical technology has changed dramatically over the last few years and our patient activity procedures are part of that," he said. "Now over half of our surgery is [done] as outpatient procedures. We need to re-work our interior space to accommodate those expectations by our patients."
While the Emergency Room will be upgraded and expanded, Struxness does not believe there will be any additional beds added to the facility.
As a part of the community relations plan, Saint Joseph Hospital is now in the process of contacting area neighbors and nearby building managers. [Inside was contacted by a nearby property manager who provided the first details of the plan to this newspaper.] "We are working with the local alderman and are contacting the community first as a courtesy—just as the city suggested we do for a planned development," said Pugh. "We're just embarking on the plan and it does include the main hospital, parking garage, the surface parking lot, Stone Medical Center, the Northside MRI Center on Sheridan and the Manor Building."
Pugh said that the hospital does not need any zoning changes for the work that is already scheduled. She said, "The city has reached out to us to see that the site remained a planned development so that what happened at Columbus Hospital does not happen here." The hospital leadership has agreed to defer taking the proposal to the City until they have had a chance to meet with concerned citizens and public officials.
The hospital has hired The Haymarket Group, a Near North Side PR and lobbying firm, to help coordinate the community outreach plan.
CORRECTION
On a front page article in the July 30-Aug. 5, 2003, edition of Inside, titled "Saint Joseph Hospital considers total rebuilding," we reported that hospital management was ready to undertake a dramatic rebuilding of the medical campus at Lake Shore Dr. and Diversey Pkwy. This story was published prematurely and without all the details of the hospital's plan. Inside reported that the hospital had considered razing six buildings to rebuild them, including the main hospital building. In fact, no structures and/or buildings will be demolished and Inside apologizes for any confusion this error may have caused. Some of the hospital's plans are outlined in the preceding story and more details will become public when Saint Joseph Hospital meets with community members.
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