Cycling For Sinai

Sinai Health System recently embarked upon a bold and exciting initiative.

As the centerpiece of a major campus redevelopment project, the new Ambulatory Care Center will enhance and sustain Sinai’s nationally-recognized urban model for efficient, high-quality healthcare. This historic undertaking will also stimulate revitalization of the neighborhoods that Sinai serves, including Lawndale, Pilsen and Little Village.

The project is a catalyst for major transformational change: for Sinai, its neighbors and the broader west side of Chicago. As one of the most significant healthcare and community development initiatives in the city, it will produce much needed and lasting benefits for years to come.

The total cost to build and equip the Ambulatory Care Center is projected at more than $120 million. Sinai has determined that philanthropic sources can likely provide $20 million of this total. Sinai Tomorrow: the Campaign for a Healthier Chicago has raised more than $3.6 million to date. This includes a grant of $1 million from the McCormick Foundation, an anonymous $1 million challenge grant from a leading Chicago area foundation, as well as financial commitments from every member of the Sinai Health System Board of Directors and senior staff.

Sinai Health System consists of Mount Sinai Hospital, Sinai Children’s Hospital, Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Sinai Medical Group, Sinai Community Institute and Sinai Urban Health Institute, with a total annual budget of nearly $400 million. Sinai is the state of Illinois’ largest provider of Medicaid. What’s more, as the national model for the delivery of urban healthcare, Sinai provides – and this is what makes it utterly unique and distinctive among other healthcare providers both locally and nationally – $100 million in community benefits, a significant chunk of which includes charity care and subsidized health services. As the medical anchor for a broad and under-served area, Sinai transforms lives every day:

• In 2008, Sinai’s staff provided care to approximately 250,000 patients in total
• Mount Sinai Hospital—a 432-bed tertiary care hospital—serves nearly 20,000 in-patients annually
• As one of only four Level I Trauma Centers in Chicago, Mount Sinai Hospital treats nearly 60,000 emergency patients, including more than 2,000 trauma patients, each year
• With more than 3,800 births each year, Sinai’s Level III Perinatal Center is the city’s second largest provider of maternity care
• Sinai has one of the nation’s largest hearing impaired treatment centers, with 1,300 deaf patients who visit 5,000 times annually
• Two-thirds of Sinai’s employees live in Chicago and over 34 percent live in Sinai’s “footprint” neighborhood.
• The 90-bed Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital helps 1,721 patients regain mobility, independence and quality of life every year
• As a teaching hospital, Mount Sinai is a vital learning center for interns and residents from local medical schools

Sinai’s mission is to improve the health of the individuals and the communities it serves. The System’s core values are respect, integrity, quality and team work.

Established 90 years ago, Sinai initially opened its doors to serve Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the area. Today, Sinai draws on its spiritual heritage to focus on the needs of its community. Caregivers at Sinai are committed to the tradition of tikkun olam—a Hebrew phrase that means “repairing the world.” Sinai’s nearly 3,000 caregivers believe that by their actions, they offer a healing and caring presence for patients, their families and the community.

Sinai’s Community Emphasis

Through the Sinai Community Institute (SCI), Sinai Health System has become a linchpin for individual and family achievement. More than two dozen programs and initiatives—from Women Infants and Children (a federal nutrition education program) and workforce development to parenting education classes and mentorship programs—nurture long-term health, success and self-sufficiency.
Since 2000, Sinai also expresses its public mission by researching the most pressing healthcare problems facing its community and city. These include racial disparities in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, diabetes, pediatric asthma, HIV/AIDS, childhood obesity, and more.

All now fall within the purview of the Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI), which encompasses social epidemiology and public health. Its founding director, Steven Whitman, Ph.D., served as Director of Epidemiology for the Chicago Department of Public Health before joining the Sinai team more than nine years ago.

Whitman has built a staff of 32, including 12 epidemiologists, creating a unique specialty unit not available in any other United States hospital. These experts oversee a vast array of applied research and science that touches on an ever-growing range of issues.

Both SCI and SUHI are unique among American medical centers, and exemplify Sinai’s leadership role as a model for urban healthcare. Their work improves health outcomes and reduces costs. Sinai has seen a 65 percent reduction in the utilization of urgent health services for children participating in SUHI’s Pediatric Asthma Program. SCI is noted for its Delayed Second Pregnancy program.

With innovative programs like SCI and SUHI and an exemplary record of quality care, Sinai is recognized as one of the foremost national models for urban healthcare. Both Vice President Joe Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius spoke to Sinai’s national significance during their recent visit and healthcare summit held at Sinai on August 20, 2009.

Need for New Ambulatory Care Center

One of the most significant developments in recent years in the delivery of healthcare has been the movement from inpatient to outpatient ambulatory care. This latest trend is driven by both cost and clinical factors. Indeed, outpatient care is not only more cost effective, but also provides a much safer environment for the provision of high quality primary and specialty care, minimizing the risk of complications like hospital acquired infections and deep vein thromboses. One implication of this shift to outpatient services is fewer costly hospitalizations. The emphasis on cost cutting and enhanced quality is even more important now in light of the passage of health care reform legislation, with its primary focus on producing better health outcomes at a lower cost.

Recognizing these new realities of healthcare delivery, the leaders of Sinai Health System have developed a bold multi-phase plan to re-envision and rebuild many of Sinai’s aging facilities. The first critical phase of these improvements will be the construction of a new, state-of-the-art outpatient care facility—called the Ambulatory Care Center—to replace the current Kling Professional Building.

Built in 1958 as a dormitory for residents and interns, the existing Kling Building was never designed to provide healthcare to thousands of individuals each year. Today, the four-story, 57,066-square-foot Kling Building has more than 80,000 patient visits each year. Given its age and construction, the building strains to support a range of services that includes Access Community Health Network’s primary care, family and internal medicine, along with pediatrics and obstetrics; Sinai’s subspecialty services of cardiology, pulmonary and allergy care; as well as urology, neurology, and neurosurgery. While Sinai’s staff continues to provide outstanding care, the building’s physical limitations make it difficult to provide a 21st century healing experience for patients and their families. Insufficient patient access and comfort make visiting Kling a challenging experience for many. At the same time, the building’s inefficiencies strain the System’s already-limited resources.

Across the street from Kling, the Chicago Housing Authority’s (CHA’s) Ogden Courts—a large but aging apartment complex—was recently demolished as part of the CHA’s Plan for Transformation. This action made available an ideal site for Sinai to build new facilities to serve its community.

Recognizing the benefits of cooperation, Sinai and the Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), with the strong support of Mayor Richard Daley, entered into a partnership to address both the critical need for a new outpatient care facility and the housing needs of Chicago’s Westside. Under this partnership, Sinai will build its new Ambulatory Care Center on the former Ogden Courts site, and the CHA will also construct 300 units of mixed use housing.

Population Served

With primary and secondary service areas including 16 Chicago communities and approximately 750,000 residents, Sinai serves one of the most diverse patient populations in the nation. A majority of Sinai’s 240,000 annual patients live in either North Lawndale (94 percent African-American) or South Lawndale/Little Village (83 percent Latino). Forty-eight percent live below the poverty level and 60 percent lack high school diplomas. Almost none of Sinai’s patients have private medical insurance: 73 percent are either uninsured or covered by Medicaid and 20 percent are covered by Medicare.

How Ambulatory Care Center Will Address the Need

The new Ambulatory Care Center will support a higher standard of care, a broader range of services and a better healing experience for patients and their families. The design of the 220,000-square-foot facility (to be constructed on a site contiguous with and connected to the Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital) will reflect a guiding commitment to patient dignity, privacy and accessibility. The building will feature spacious primary and specialty clinics, enabling Sinai to provide high quality, comprehensive integrated 21st century care to its patients in one setting. It will also include state- of- the art diagnostic imaging and treatment services, as well as outpatient surgery.

Across all of these services, the new ACC will greatly increase Sinai’s service capacity. Primary and specialty care capacity is estimated to double, if not more, with the construction of the new building. Along with increased capacity, the new facility will support greater operational efficiency, more regular and extensive physician collaboration and, ultimately, better health outcomes. The result will be a patient experience like no other. Indeed, once built, the new ACC promises to be the national model for the provision of outpatient services in a low income urban setting.

Goals and Objectives of the Ambulatory Care Center

The new ACC is intended to enable Sinai to provide quality healthcare for a diverse community in an efficient, cost effective, technologically-sophisticated and welcoming care environment. More specifically, the new Ambulatory Care Center will enhance Sinai Health System’s ability to

• Respond to the increasing healthcare care needs of a growing population in Sinai’s core service area;
• Ensure financial sustainability and competitiveness;
• Retain and recruit first-rate primary and specialty care physicians;
• Adopt “green technology” to conserve energy; and
• Stimulate economic revitalization of the neighborhoods surrounding Sinai’s campus.

The new Ambulatory Care Center embodies the elements of Sinai’s recently completed strategic plan. After careful deliberations, Sinai Health System’s staff and Board of Directors affirmed that the System’s overall strategic goals call for efforts to:

• Create a patient- and physician-friendly environment;
• Increase Medicare patients;
• Generate adequate resources to support Sinai’s mission;
• Create partnerships; and
• Enhance Sinai’s visibility both in the community and nationally.

Completing the new ACC will positively impact each of these strategic goals in a significant way, and in doing so advance the System’s mission to improve the health of the individuals and the communities it serves.

Assessing Impact

The following measures will be used to assess the positive impact of the new Ambulatory Care Center:

• The new ACC will meet expectations regarding patient visits and patient satisfaction;
• The facility will contribute significantly to helping Sinai Health System secure its financial sustainability and the System’s competitiveness, given the recent passage of healthcare reform legislation;
• Sinai will be able to retain and recruit first-rate and very capable primary and specialty care physicians;
• The new ACC will achieve projected cost savings by adopting green technology and economies of scale;
• Finally, the new ACC will help spur economic growth and development in the neighborhoods surrounding Sinai’s campus—initially through job creation in order to construct the new facility, and thereafter by providing retail space, serving as the catalyst for new jobs associated with the planned construction of 300 units of mixed use housing as well as other community jobs related to maintaining the new Ambulatory Care Center.

The impact of this project can not be underscored enough. It will not only transform the Sinai, but also breathe new life into the surrounding Westside communities, which have been long neglected in the past. Indeed, it is likely to be one of the most significant and far reaching healthcare and community revitalization undertakings in the city, the benefits of which will accrue for decades to come.

Project Budget

Ambulatory Center Costs & Funding Sources
Total Project Costs: $122.6MM

Sources	Amount	% of Total
Philanthropic Contributions	$20.0MM	16
Capital Grants	7.6MM	6
Projected TIF and HUD financing and planned debt financing	95.0MM	78
Total	$122.6 MM	100%

In order to raise the additional $100 million-plus in funding for the ACC, Sinai will leverage its long-standing relationships with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago.  To date, $7 million is earmarked in Governor Patrick Quinn’s capital bill, which was enacted in July.  Sinai is also in negotiations with HUD and the City of Chicago to finance this historic initiative.

Philanthropic support will be essential to receiving these public funds and Sinai.  Please read about Sinai Chicago on this site and look at some of the “faces of Sinai.”  Click on Support Our Cause and help Sinai continue its history of healing and caring.