billion investment by parent Advocate Health Care to improve health equity in the city. Advocate executives say this"is one of the largest, long-term community-focused health care investments in the nation aimed at closing the 30-year life expectancy gap between individuals who reside on the South Side, and those residing and living longer on the North Side.
“We are so far ahead of where we were 50 years ago technologically and in terms of the potential to decentralized care that I think the timing of this new effort is good as long as the principles do not get overly enamored with gigantic facilities,” saidIn Advocate’s case, executives say they aren’t focused on big facilities but investing in a “wellness model” that executives involved say included several months of meetings with community leaders and South Side residents throughout 2024.
Advocate Health Care has an agreement to purchase 23 acres of land on the South Side of Chicago near Lake Michigan where it plans to build a 52-bed hospital with 26 medical surgical beds, a four-bed dialysis unit and an emergency room with 16 bays, executives said.
Chicago’s South Side has been hit hard by the loss of medical care providers. In particular, more than 20 hospitals have closed since 2000 in the Chicago area and most have been on the South Side,The loss of medical care providers has led to disparities with “four times as many diabetes related deaths on the South Side than the North Side,” Advocate said in announcing its investment.