Published July 2, 2009                                                         

Hinsdale Hospital leaders plan expansion

By Pamela Lannom
plannom@thehinsdalean.com

   With 100 years of history in the community, it’s time for Adventist Hinsdale Hospital to be ready for the next 100 years, leaders say.
   They are planning a $75 million, 120,000-square-foot expansion project that will add 130 to 140 private rooms and other new space, increasing the size of the hospital by about 20 percent.
   “More than anything, I think, this is a new stage for Adventist Hinsdale Hospital,” said David Crane, chief executive officer and a Hinsdale resident. “It’s been a great 100 years. Our history has been built on fantastic physicians who could practice anywhere but chose to live and practice in Hinsdale.
   “It’s time that our facility caught up in terms of private rooms, because our patients can go anywhere for care. This is really what hospitals have to do in the 21st century,” he added.
   Today only about 20 percent of the hospital’s rooms are private, said Alan Schneider, chief operating officer.
   “We wanted to increase that to almost 100 percent,” he said.
   As rooms are converted, the number of patient beds in the hospital will actually drop from 338 to about 250 to 280.
   The new space will be much different than what patients who have stayed in the north wing are accustomed to. That space was designed in the late 1950s and built in 1962 with long, narrow corridors, Schneider said.
   “By developing a double-loaded corridor system in our new pavilion, we could develop neighborhoods — we call them clinical neighborhoods — where the nurse or the doctor could go out and be able to access things within 50 feet of that area,” Schneider said.
   The new space also will have two separate hallways so patients and visitors can travel different routes.
   As the patient beds from the north wing are moved to the addition, space within the existing building will be reconfigured.
   “The other goal is to bring our services together on the first floor,” Schneider said.
   Patients who come in for surgery now have to go to several different areas to register and have blood work and other tests done.
   “You’re going through so many parts of our building because the building just has been added on to, so functions that may have worked 40 years ago now are separated,” he said. “We’re going to bring some of those functions together on the first floor.”
   Improving the facility will make it easier to keep nurses on staff, Schneider said.
   “It is hard to get good, qualified nurses, so when we get them, we want to make sure we retain them. When the economy turns around again, everyone is going to be fighting for nurses,” he said.
   Planners chose to add on to the south end of the hospital after considering 10 possible layouts.
   “We looked at many different options for what this addition will look like,” Schneider said. “We chose option 7 because that got us to our goal the fastest.”
   Hospital leaders held three meetings with neighbors to introduce them to the expansion plans. Crane said the meetings were excellent.
   “We’ve had very good dialogue,” he said. “We have come away from those conversations with constructive criticism.”
   Most people have been very supportive, he said.
   “They love having an excellent hospital within walking distance,” he said.
   Neighbors and other residents will have a chance to comment on the plans during a Hinsdale Plan Commission public hearing, which is required in order to amend the site’s planned development. The project also will require site plan and exterior appearance approval. The plan commission’s recommendations will go before the Hinsdale Village Board for a final vote.
   The goal is to bring the plans to the village this fall, Schneider said.
   “I am excited to have this happening,” he said. “It’s something that the community needs and we need, too, as a hospital.”

Plan details

   Officials at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital are planning to expand the facility, with a target completion date of 2011.
   Alan Schneider, chief operating officer, acknowledged that the timeline is fairly aggressive.
   “But that’s what we would like to do,” he said.
   Here are the details of the plan.

Location: south of existing building along Oak Street
Size: five floors, 120,000 square feet
Patient beds: 130 to 140 additional private rooms
Other new space: atrium, chapel, 30,000 square feet of remodeled space in existing building
Cost: $75 million
Future plans: add helipad to top of parking garage, build new outpatient cancer center on Ogden Avenue