Chicago's South Side finally gets a trauma center after protests by local activists

(Story updated at 6:15 p.m. ET.)

The University of Chicago Medicine and Sinai Health System in Chicago announced Thursday they will partner to build a Level I adult trauma center on Chicago's South Side, heeding longtime demands from city activists.

Holy Cross Hospital, part of faith-based Sinai Health System, will renovate and expand its emergency department to achieve Level I trauma center status, adding additional operating rooms and intensive-care unit beds. The $40 million project is expected to take at least two years to complete, and will be partially funded by the university.

Sinai Health System, which operates a Level I trauma center at Mount Sinai Hospital on the city's west side, will provide trauma specialists including emergency medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, nurses and related support staff, while UChicago Medicine will provide general trauma physicians, neurologists, orthopedic and plastic surgeons, urologists and other specialists.

UChicago also announced plans to build a new adult emergency department at its hospital in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood, where local activists had initially called for construction of a trauma center. That campus currently has a Level I pediatric trauma center at Comer Children's Hospital.

“This important opportunity allows us to extend our commitment to invest our resources where we can have the greatest impact on the critical health needs of our communities,” said University of Chicago Medical Center President Sharon O'Keefe, in a statement. “This collaborative partnership, a model for other care providers, leverages our collective experience and resources to expand access to life-saving, quality health care for the communities we serve.”

The partnership does not include a joint operating agreement and there's no equity involved in the deal, officials said at a press conference Friday. The staffing of the center will be a clinical collaboration between the two organizations, and Holy Cross will operate the facility.

The collaborative model balances the financial weight of the center for Holy Cross, said Sinai Health System CEO Karen Teitelbaum, as physician costs can be one of the highest costs that come with operating a trauma center. "Nobody goes into trauma service to make money,” she said.

Holy Cross, which is in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the South Side, became a part of Sinai in 2013, after negotiations fell through with Vanguard Health Systems, now part of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. Holy Cross is adjacent to neighborhoods with some of the highest incidences of trauma injury and gun violence in the city.

Activists with the city's Trauma Care Coalition have been calling for a trauma center on the South Side since 2010, when a young community activist died after being shot blocks away from the University of Chicago Medical Center.

In June, protesters barricaded themselves in an administrative building on the University of Chicago campus and had to be forcibly removed by police and firefighters.

There hasn't been a trauma center on Chicago's South Side since 1991, when Michael Reese Hospital, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood, closed its trauma center. Adult trauma victims from the area are often taken downtown to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, one of four trauma centers in the city.

In a statement, activists called the Holy Cross trauma center project a victory for the South Side and a “direct result of the efforts of black young people and their allies.” But the group said there are still “large swaths” of the South Side that won't be served by the center, and the decision to not put the center on the UChicago campus shows that the University “hasn't done enough to show that black lives matter … We celebrate this step for a more equitable distribution of resources in our city, while we acknowledge that it is not enough,” the coalition said. “We will continue to fight for healthcare justice on the South Side.”

In a press conference in front of UChicago Medical Center Friday afternoon, activists expressed concern that the center won't be built on the more sophisticated and advanced UChicago medical campus. The campus is also more central, which would allow more individuals on the southeastern side to be served.

“This is a great great accomplishment we have made. But what about over here? There are still lives over here that need to be saved,” said Corey Mason, an activist with Fearless Leading by the Youth, or FLY, a community group that is a part of the Trauma Care Coalition.

The activists have also called for the University of Chicago to raise the age limit at Comer's trauma center to allow patients up to the age of 21, and claimed Friday that the formation of a Holy Cross trauma center means the end of UChicago's recent application to the state of Illinois to raise the age limit to 18 years old. O'Keefe said at the press conference that the application is “still out there” and the University will work with other trauma centers in the city to come up with the “most appropriate approach to the situation.”

Sheila Rush, the mother of Damian Turner, the young activist whose death spurred the movement for a South Side trauma center, also appeared at the coalition's press conference. She accused UChicago Medicine of failing to listen to the community's calls for a trauma center on campus.

“For them to not take time and hear the community needs, it's not about money, it can't be about money,” Rush said. “Don't be kidding all of these kids.”

Officials with Holy Cross and UChicago say the area surrounding Holy Cross is where much of the South Side's trauma and gun violence comes from. Dr. Douglas Dirschl, chairman of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation medicine at UChicago, said it's likely that the new center will be the largest Level I trauma center in the city.

UChicago Medicine and Sinai Health System expect to file a Certificate of Need with the state, and will also seek approval from the state's Department of Public Health. In the meantime, they are focused on recruiting staff for the trauma center and meeting with community leaders to discuss neighborhood outreach, system officials said.

“Since Holy Cross became part of our health care network in 2013, we have been seeking ways to expand its reach, especially when it comes to acute care and violence prevention,” said Teitelbaum, in a statement. “Bringing the expertise and resources of the University of Chicago Medicine and Sinai Health System together, we can do exponentially more for all of the communities on the South and Southwest Side of the city.”