Advocate Lutheran General Hospital wants to spend $99 million to create a new cancer center on its Park Ridge campus, a move that would have it join a growing list of Chicago-area hospitals boosting their cancer care.
The hospital is aiming to build a two-floor, 77,000-square-foot addition to an existingoutpatient facility that would be attached to the existing building via a walkway, creating a Comprehensive Cancer Center, according to an application for the project filed with the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board. The state board must approve the application for the project to move forward.
Outpatient cancer services would be consolidated and expanded with the new addition. The project would also include modernization of an outpatient lab in the connected building.
In its application, Advocate Lutheran General cited statistics predicting increasing demand for outpatient cancer services, as more procedures become available on an outpatient basis, as the area’s older population continues to increase and as access to cancer screenings grows.
The project is expected to be completed and operational by the end of 2028, according to the application.
“This project is designed to meet the growing need for innovative cancer care as well as the projected demand for these cutting-edge treatments in a coordinated, fully integrated location with increased space and resources,” the hospital said in its application.
Advocate Health Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.
In recent years, many Chicago-area hospitals have embarked on projects to expand their cancer care as baby boomers continue to age.
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has projected a 49% increase in annual cancer cases between 2015 and 2050 — and hospitals are working to position themselves to meet that demand. Cancer care also continues to advance, with 70% of people diagnosed with cancer surviving for at least five years, up from about half in the mid-1970s, according to an American Cancer Society report released this week.
UChicago Medicine is building a 575,000 square foot freestanding cancer hospital on Chicago’s South Side that’s intended to give area residents greater access to care and help the hospital attract more patients from across the region.
Endeavor Health is adding a two-story addition to its Knowles Cancer Center at Endeavor Health Elmhurst Hospital, and converting a floor of the Galter Medical Pavilion at Endeavor Health Swedish Hospital into a cancer space with additional rooms.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital also plans to construct a new tower on its Streeterville campus with more than 200 beds that would also consolidate oncology services now spread across five buildings on the hospital campus.
The state Health Facilities and Services Review Board recently approved Northwestern’s application to spend $56 million on the tower’s design, and Northwestern is now asking the board to approve plans to spend another $51 million demolishing a three-story basement on the site, in anticipation of building the tower. Northwestern has not yet submitted a plan to the board for the actual construction of the tower.
UChicago Medicine and Rush University System for Health have also started affiliating with hospitals in other parts of the country on cancer care.
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