Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital files plans for replacement building

Northwestern Lake Forest (Ill.) Hospital has applied for a state permit to build a replacement campus, at an estimated cost of $378 million, about five months after the hospital got approval to design it.

Plans call for a 114-bed hospital, down from the current 201 beds available for patients, mainly because Northwestern Lake Forest is not including its 84-bed long-term care unit in the new facility, according to an application posted today on the website of the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board.

The state board, which regulates the healthcare industry to prevent duplicating services, must approve the proposal.

The replacement campus, to be built on the hospital's current site at 660 N. Westmoreland Road in north suburban Lake Forest, also will include a contiguous medical office building with space for 60 physicians, as well as for pharmacy, laboratory and retail services.

The new facility is slated to open in the fall of 2017.

In 2010 Northwestern Lake Forest became part of Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, which promised to replace the North Shore hospital's aging hospital as part of the deal.

"Lake Forest Hospital files for replacement building" originally appeared in Crain's Chicago Business.