Christ Hospital President 'Disappointed' By Request for Additional Impact Study

The Oak Lawn Planning and Development Commission want to because there are still too many “unknowns” about traffic, flood control and economic impact on the village.

Steve Radice, chair of the plan commission, told hospital officials on Monday that commissioners still don’t have enough information to recommend the medical center’s nine zoning variances for approval by the

“We want to get it right,” Radice said. “I can’t go through with this and feel 100 percent comfortable. It’s bigger than anything [the village] has ever dealt with.”

The latest addition to the medical center campus is part of a $600 million expansion plan to increase capacity and eventually update older buildings on the campus, including The 9-story tower of up to 170 feet will located on the east side of the campus facing Kostner on the site of an existing parking garage.

A new garage will be built in the street lot across Kostner. The garage would be connected to the patient tower by a pedestrian bridge over Kostner.

Advocate Christ President Ken Lukhard said the patient tower would increase capacity, including adding 14 new operating rooms and doubling the size of the emergency department.

The hospital turned away between 5,000 and 8,000 patients last year because there were no available beds. Last year, the emergency department closed for 1,100 hours, diverting patients to other hospitals because it had reached full capacity.

Lukhard told plan commissioners that the medical center wasn’t expecting a vote Monday night.

“We’re not a laid-back community hospital,” Lukhard said. “This is a hospital that is designed to treat the sickest of the sick. If you can look me in the face and tell me that prefer to risk that extra hour and send a loved one with a brain bleed downtown than I want to talk to you about it.”

While no one in the room disagreed that Advocate Christ was one of the top hospitals in the nation, some residents who live near the medical center said they felt "blindsided" by the latest building proposal.

Lukhard told the audience that Advocate had unveiled its 10-year expansion plan in 2008, but tabled it when the economy tanked. He said the medical center has been completely “transparent” with village leaders.

“We’ve been up front for six years,” the hospital president said. “We talked about this with the mayor and the village manager for six years about a campus expansion plan that would have phases. We’ve not blindsided the village with any of this.”

Lukhard said he wasn’t given the go-ahead to publicly talk about the proposed patient tower until after the last fall because Advocate’s corporate board wasn’t sure if it could raise the money.

He said that a model and architectural renderings on what the patient tower would look like haven't been completed yet.

The hospital president also extolled the economic benefits the medical center had brought to the community, including employing 600 local residents at a payroll of $22 million. Lukhard said the new patient tower would provide an additional 150 jobs.

Radice asked the medical center to pay for an impact study to address infrastructural concerns by an independent third party "as a cost of doing business" in the village.

“We want to get it right,” Radice said. “I can’t go through with this and feel 100 percent comfortable. It’s bigger than anything [the village] has ever dealt with.”

Lukhard complained the hospital has already spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies” and “millions on design.”

“We have all the plans done,” he said.

Taking Lukhard to task, Village Manager Larry Deetjen called the expense for paying for one more study “miniscule.”

“The project is not right to be approved tonight,” Deetjen said to residents’ applause. “All we’re asking for is a little more time. Residents have many constructive comments and we’re almost there … we don’t have to reinvent the wheel but there are some key pinpointed issues that if we can agree, we can get them resolved.”

Advocate Christ hopes to have state approvals in the fall so that it can begin construction.

The Planning and Development Commission voted 5-2 to continue the public hearing until its next meeting on May 21. John Eggert and Tim Reilly were the dissenting votes.

Lukhard expressed his disappointment with having to do another study, inciting a hail of fury from the village manager.

“You say you’re disappointed that a lot of work has been done that hasn’t been fully embraced,” Deetjen said. “You haven’t even mentioned the sanitary sewer and the lift station. I will submit to you there has been no public discussion of that, but it has been in your purview for several years to address.”