Residents Air Concerns About Advocate Christ's Campus Expansion

Dist. 4 residents packed the boardroom of the Oak Lawn Park District's administration building last Thursday for Trustee Terry Vorderer's first meeting to discuss expansion issues with Advocate Christ Medical Center officials.   

Bob Harrison, vice president of business development for Advocate Christ, presented a PowerPoint about the various advancements the hospital has made in the past few years. Also discussed were the remainder of the medical center's expansion plans, which Harrison said would be completed in June 2015. 

In 2008, the hospital changed its mission to focus on becoming a more advanced health care provider for the south suburbs, with strong emphases on neuroscience, cardiovascular and cancer treatment. Harrison said the medical center wishes to expand because other hospitals with similar programs are considerably larger.

“We’ve outgrown our space,” Harrison said. “We’ve grown leaps and bounds since we launched these programs. We’re very small for what we do, and that’s really what’s pushed us to grow.”

Harrison said that construction of the outpatient tower along 95th Street is expected to be completed by spring 2014. He also provided details for the new inpatient tower that is set to be built on Kilbourne Avenue following the demolition of the current parking garage.

Plans call for a new 7-story bed tower, an attached 7-story parking garage, improved landscaping of the campus and a new traffic light at 95th Street and Kilbourne.

The inpatient tower will include two floors for intensive care and two floors of obstetrics, including child delivery and postpartum rooms, complementing the hospital’s existing intensive care and maternity facilities. The new building will also house a cafeteria and a kitchen that will serve the whole medical campus.

Vorderer said that while the hospital is an economic asset to the village, he realizes that Dist. 4 “pays a little bit more of price than the rest of Oak Lawn." Some community members seemed to agree, voicing their concerns to Harrison.

Traffic control in particular was a major issue among constituents. Harrison said the hospital is taking measures to keep drivers from driving through the neighborhoods north of the hospital.

“We tried to keep [the outpatient and inpatient buildings] as close in design to 95th Street for traffic reasons so patients and visitors could come straight off of 95th and get into the parking lots as soon as possible,” Harrison said. “The goal was that the majority of traffic will stay on 95th and get off the street as quickly as possible.”

The medical center also plans to install signs at the exit of the employee parking lot on 93rd Street to prevent employees from “flying down 93rd Street” going east, Harrison said.

Residents voiced concerns about the drainage near the entrance to the parking garage as well as power outages that have been occurring in the area. Harrison said Advocate officials are still discussing the drainage issues near the parking garage. Further,he had not heard before of the hospital causing power surges and outages in the surrounding neighborhood.

Village Manager Larry Deetjen, who happened to be at the meeting, stepped in, stating that because the medical center is a “priority site” for power, it has special feeders that deliver power to the campus.

The village manager added that the power outage issues Dist. 4 residents are experiencing are as a result of problems with the infrastructure of the power grid and the feeder lines from outside Oak Lawn.

Oak Lawn-resident Joe Skibinski, who attended at the meeting, said whether residents want it or not, the hospital is expanding, but he’s glad that Advocate Christ is making an effort to work with the community.

“Hopefully it’s not a financial drain on the village,” Skibinski said. “And I hope the hospital realizes that, and they agree to pay their fair share, not only for construction costs but the ongoing expenses and burdens they put on the village.”