The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System has filed an application with the state to build a $191 million outpatient center on its Near West Side campus.
The new building is needed as the demand for outpatient services continues to increase, the hospital said in its application.
"Our surgical program has grown so that we are operating at or beyond capacity," head of surgery Dr. Enrico Benedetti said in a November statement announcing a $10 million donation toward the building. About half of the surgical cases at the hospital are outpatient procedures, the hospital said.
The new building would be connected to the 462-bed hospital's main inpatient building by a bridge. The six-story building would include a surgical suite; a multispecialty procedure area with eight rooms, two of which would be dedicated to gastroenterology; and an imaging department with an MRI unit, the application said.
The building, which would be about 20,000 square feet, could break ground in August and be completed by 2022, University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics CEO Mike Zenn said in an emailed statement.
The health system "continues to see 5 percent annual growth in outpatient surgeries across many surgical service lines," Zenn said. "The new outpatient surgery and multispecialty procedure floors are designed to meet this demand in a much more efficient and patient-friendly setting."
The project would be funded through a public-private partnership. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees will sublease the facility from a newly formed 501(c)(3) organization, Provident Resources Group, the application said.
The University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System reported $765.8 million in net patient revenue last year.
The Illinois Health Facilities & Services Review Board is expected to vote on the project at its April 7 meeting.
Bruno and Sallie Pasquinelli donated $10 million to help create the new outpatient center, the hospital said, and the building's third floor will be named after the couple. Along with his brother, Bruno Pasquinelli in 1956 founded Pasquinelli Homebuilding. It filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2011. Sallie Pasquinelli in 1964 co-founded Village Artists, a studio and gallery in the south suburbs.
This article was originally published in Crain's Chicago Business.
