Trauma Center Opening On South Side Next Month

CHICAGO, IL — The final regulatory hurdle has cleared for a trauma center to open on the South Side. The Illinois Department of Public Health has approved the University of Chicago Medicine to be a Level 1 adult trauma center, according to to a news release shared by the university.

The IDPH visited the UChicago Medicine’s main Hyde Park campus on April 3 and approval was announced on Monday. The facility is now all set to open May 1 at 5656 S. Maryland Ave. and will provide residents of Chicago's South Side with their first adult trauma center since the former Michael Reese Hospital closed its center in 1991.

“This is a momentous occasion for our institution and for the South Side, as we expand critical services to our neighbors,” said Dr. Selwyn Rogers Jr., chief of trauma and acute care surgery and director of the trauma center. “With this new IDPH adult-trauma designation, UChicago Medicine can offer integrated trauma care, as we build upon services provided by our existing Level 1 pediatric trauma program and the Burn and Complex Wound Center.”

The UChicago center will "include violence recovery and wraparound services designed to help trauma patients successfully transition back into the community, including outpatient psychiatric, behavioral health and social recovery care," the university's release states.

The new center will include 188 new inpatient beds that "will help us accommodate the high demand for our services," Sharon O’Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center, said.

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This means 24/7 emergency care for victims of gunshot wounds and other traumatic injuries such as motor vehicle crashes and burns. For years, patients in many areas of the South Side have been taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Rogers said 18 new surgeons and a number of other physicians have already been hired to work exclusively at the trauma center. The staff has been training for over a year, according to Debra Allen, clinical director of trauma service.

"We are preparing for all that's possible," Rogers said.

The university's Comer Children's Hospital has been a designated Level 1 pediatric trauma center since 1990.

The former University of Chicago Hospital offered adult trauma service from 1986 until 1988.

Photo courtesy of University of Chicago Medicine