VIDEO: A Look Inside the Silver Cross Replacement Hospital

The Silver Cross Hospital replacement campus is less than a year from opening in New Lenox, and hospital and village leaders believe it will offer vastly improved health care services and create a development boom in the surrounding area near Interstate 355.

The 553,000-square-foot hospital will open to patients Feb. 26 after construction is completed in November. That will allow enough time for moving, organizing, training and orientation when the hospital leaves behind its 100-plus years in Joliet.

"We’re not a Joliet hospital, we’re a regional hospital," said Geoff Tryon, Silver Cross' vice president of operations and construction. "This puts us more in the center of the region.” 

The hospital will be the main component of a large medical campus that includes a health center, medical services building and cancer center, and will boast partnerships with the University of Chicago, Children's Memorial Hospital and more.

A Need to Grow

Silver Cross Hospital admitted its first patient in 1895 in Joliet, and over the last century built an array of extensions under different codes and styles, depending on the time. After a while, the hospital outgrew its campus.

"We were the fastest growing hospital in Illinois in one of the fastest growing counties in the nation," said Mary Bakken, chief operating officer at Silver Cross. "We knew we needed to grow to be able to serve more people."

In 2008, the hospital's board approved the move to New Lenox. Other options were explored, though, including remodeling and expanding on the current campus in Joliet. But those plans left something desired, Bakken said, because the layout of the existing hospital had become a hindrance.

"They didn’t really serve patient care as it’s provided today," Bakken said of the other options. "It wasn’t an easy decision because our roots are in (Joliet). But ultimately this is what will best serve the community."

And there will still be health care services offered at the current location. A group called the Silver Cross Healthy Community Commission meets monthly and will make recommendations for redevelopment of the existing campus.

Aunt Martha’s Youth Service Center and Health Center plans to open a health facility on the south end of the campus in Joliet, and it will offer exam and dental rooms, as well as behavioral health offices. The Veterans Administration is also interested in opening an outpatient service from the current emergency department.

“The deal is not inked yet but it’s in the final stages,” Bakken said.

A Comfortable, Efficient Layout

In constructing the new hospital, administrators wanted to make sure everything was as efficient and convenient as possible for patients, staff and visitors.

"We even had nurses counting steps to make sure everything was right," Tryon said.

The hospital was actually built seven times in a 3D computer program to lay out all the floor plans perfectly. If something needed to be changed it was remodeled in the computer version before construction, which was done by laying out the plans using GPS to make sure they were as accurate as possible.

Additionally, staff helped develop ideas for the shape of the building, the size of rooms and more. There are also some mock rooms in the current hospital that are being used to gather feedback from staff and patients. That’s already led to various changes, such as lighting, placement of towel dispensers and the height of the shower head.

There will be 289 patient rooms, almost all of which are private, and the intention is to give them more of a hotel appearance than an institutional one. They include flat-screen TVs, couches that pull out into beds and large windows to let in more light, which Bakken said is known to help with the healing process.

"They’re laid out to make it comfortable not only for the patient, but also the family," she said.

The hospital also has a coffee shop, gift shop and chapel on the first level, and there's a large dining area that opens to a serenity garden, half of which will be for staff on breaks and the other portion for visitors. Besides comfort, convenience is vital to the new hospital.

Half of in-patients come from the emergency department, and in the existing layout Bakken said some units are a “football field apart.” With this design, there is an elevator straight from the emergency department to in-patient care. There is also a trauma elevator so an entire team can fit inside with a patient. The intensive and procedural care units are on the same floor in the new hospital because they share a lot of the same resources.

“We looked at minimizing the amount of times we transport a patient, and then also the length of time they’re being transported," Bakken said. "When someone isn’t feeling well, that can be an extra burden.”

That would be a big improvement from the current hospital, which has 11 buildings that aren't all connected or arranged in the best way. Hospital leaders believe these new efficiences will help maintain a Top 100 Hospital ranking that Silver Cross has received six years in a row.

"Getting from here to there, it’s a maze," Tryon said of the current hospital. "Everything is much more efficient here."

Building a Medical Campus

It isn't just the hospital that's opening near Interstate 355; the vision is a medical campus that spans 76 acres and has lots of room to grow in the future.

The Silver Cross Health Center opened in fall 2009 and offers a Women's Health Center and Children's Memorial Outpatient Center. A medical services building is being built and will be completed in November, around the same time as the hospital. It will have a conference center, hold all outpatient services and have four floors of physicians.

And in October 2010, a on the medical campus. The center is a partnership between Silver Cross Hospital and the University of Chicago Medical Center. This will provide treatment close to home for south suburban residents often forced to travel to Chicago. The two-story facility will open on the Silver Cross medical campus in April 2012.

“Instead of people having to travel to Chicago, they can get that care in Will County," Silver Cross spokeswoman Tracy Simons said.

The planning will go beyond these initial buildings, though, which will all be connected. As Bakken put it, the hospital is ready for another 100-year plan in this location. Tryon said the construction was done with future developments in mind. One end of the hospital wasn't finished with stone because that's the first likely place to expand. And the hospital can add two floors to the top of the new structure, which would allow for another 144 beds.

The idea that this is a multi-faceted campus is attractive to village leaders and potential businesses.

"It makes it that much more impressive that it’s a medical center and not just a hospital," New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann said.

Business Could Boom

Baldermann said the hospital's construction has already had a huge impact on interest in the area from business developers.

"The hospital has done a great job of keeping the interest up," the mayor said. "It is a generator for that area, and with 355 right there, those are major factors behind why New Lenox is still able to grow in this economy."

Last week, a developer on the northwest side of the hospital. Spring Creek Outlets would be the main component of a mixed-used development proposed by Center Creek Development, LLC. Plans are to break ground in August and have its grand opening in fall 2012. The development, which would be on the northwest end of the Silver Cross replacement hospital campus, could also include hotels, senior housing and restaurants.

This development would land in a spot expected to expand greatly over the next few years after the Silver Cross hospital campus opens in February 2012. Developer Jeff Middlebrook said having shopping, hotels and restaurants near the hospital will be a great fit in the area. According to Silver Cross, there could be about 7,000 people in and out of the area on a daily basis. 

“The cafeteria in there isn’t feeding 7,000 people a day," Middlebrook said. "So you'll have people who are looking to eat or shop, or need an extended stay if they're visiting someone in the hospital. The synergies play off each other very well."

Another development, Cedar Crossings, has had  for a 970,000-square-foot retail center on the southwest side of the hospital but plans to have some roadwork in the site done this year.

As the hospital completes its construction, these developments could progress as well, creating a new destination in the south suburbs that includes health care and retail.

"It’s already had tremendous impact," Baldermann said of the hospital. "The way the construction is moving on time, we’ve sparked interest on other developments in town."