Advocate Health Care Announces $1B Investment to Expand South Side Services, Replace Trinity Hospital | Black Voices | Chicago News

Chicago’s South Side residents have a 30-year life expectancy gap compared to their North Side counterparts.

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Advocate Health Care is working to address that disparity with a new $1 billion investment plan that includes replacing Advocate Trinity Hospital with a new facility.

Stakeholders say the goal is to improve the health and well-being of residents by focusing on prevention, disease management and increased access to care.

“Our focus is on wellness, it’s on health,” said Michelle Blakely, president of Advocate Trinity and Advocate South Suburban Hospitals. “It’s on creating a pathway for people to reverse diseases. It’s to decrease the chronic condition burden that is impacting the people in the community, so people are living their healthiest lives ever.”

The $1 billion investment includes $500 million focused on ambulatory services and access to ambulatory care; $200 million toward chronic condition management, social drivers of health and maternal health; and $300 million for replacing Trinity Hospital.

The new facility will hold 52 beds, replacing Advocate’s current 205-bed hospital. Despite the decrease in beds, officials are confident this new model will better serve the community.

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Over the last nine months Advocate has worked with community members to hold listening sessions focused on addressing residents’ major concerns. Blakely said one of the bigger issues presented focused on dated equipment within the current building and a lack of trust between patients and medical staff.

The new facility will reside on 23 acres on the old U.S. Steel South Works site south and west of Lake Shore Drive and north of 81st Street. The future quantum computing campus also has plans to start building on the southern end of the site.

Despite high rates of hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure and other illnesses on the South Side, hospital beds there only have a 40% utilization rate — one of the reasons Advocate plans to focus its efforts on outpatient care and community health and wellness services. 

The $700 million that goes toward outpatient services includes 10 neighborhood care sites located at various community organizations, community centers and churches. The first will open at the South Side YMCA early next year. Advocate plans to open three additional sites over the next few years.

“What’s brilliant about this partnership is we’re bringing health and well-being together,” said Sona Jones, chief health and wellbeing officer for the YMCA of metropolitan Chicago. “What science tells us is that regular movement or nutrition or social connectivity, and social connection, all of those things impact the various facets that contribute to health outcomes.” 

Jones said those intending to utilize these Advocate services won’t need a membership with YMCA. In addition to the Advocate partnership, the YMCA plans to grow four programmatic pillars over the next couple of years — one of them specifically related to social well-being.

The neighborhood care sites will focus on wraparound services like providing patients with access to food, housing, medical appointments and transportation, in addition to providing everyday health services.

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Part of the investment includes $25 million focused on workforce development because disrupting the root causes of health inequities on the South Side also requires having good-paying jobs with good benefits, Advocate said in a statement. 

“This is going to spark more investment, more interest in the community, and all those, those negatives we can start addressing, we can extract business that’s going to provide goods and services to the community that they need and want,” said Ald. Greg Mitchell of the 7th Ward, which includes communities like South Shore, South Chicago, Avalon Park and Calumet Heights.

Mitchell anticipates this investment will revitalize the community and address additional concerns such as vacant properties and lost homeownership.

The new system will allow for 85,000 more doctor appointments each year across the South Side sites and an additional 5,000 OB-GYN appointments each year aimed at addressing maternal and fetal health disparities in the Black community — a growing concern for Illinois officials.

“Our intention is to be comprehensive for that entire spectrum of the mom’s journey, pre- and postpartum,” Blakely said. “We believe that we’re going to be able to lower this pregnancy-related death rate because we are investing heavily in this space.”

Construction on the new hospital could begin by the end of next year and be completed by 2029 pending approvals. Mitchell said the U.S. Steel South Works site has stood as a symbol of disinvestment and missed opportunities for years. 

“Everything that needs to happen on my side to make this a reality, I am prepared to do,” Mitchell said.