Governor Quinn Announces $10 Million Capital Grant for Rush University Medical Center

CHICAGO – June 22, 2010. Governor Pat Quinn today announced a $10 million capital grant to help construct a new, state-of-the-art emergency and disaster preparedness center at Rush University Medical Center. The McCormick Center for Advanced Emergency Response, the first of its kind in the United States, will more than double the size of the hospital’s emergency department and is designed to better care for the victims of major catastrophes.

“It is the duty of state government to provide for the health and safety of our residents here in Illinois,” said Governor Quinn. “The state-of-the-art emergency center at Rush University Medical Center is a great example of how investing capital dollars creates jobs and improves our local communities.”

Rush’s McCormick Center for Advanced Emergency Response will occupy the first floor of a new 14-floor hospital building currently under construction. The center will house 56 patient treatment bays and an advanced disaster response center. On a day-to-day basis, it will operate as an emergency facility. However, in the event of a disaster, special design and technology advancements will be utilized to better respond to biological, chemical and other catastrophes.

The new center will cover more than 40,000 square feet and be capable of handling 65,000 patient visits annually. The center and new hospital building will be located immediately east of Rush's Atrium hospital building located at 1650 West Congress Parkway.

The new facility will include a specialized airflow system that can isolate areas of the facility from the effects of chemical or biological agents. Additionally, every room will have a cardiac monitor and each of three patient treatment pods will have its own ultrasound unit and available bedside point-of-care blood testing. Radiology will be located within the emergency department to reduce wait times for diagnostic imaging.

The design of the new center includes input from disaster response experts, including military sources, to better prepare it for catastrophic events such as a bioterrorism attack or pandemic flu outbreak. The center is part of Rush’s ten-year campus-wide construction project, called the Rush Transformation. According to Rush, the campus-wide effort will employ more than 600 construction workers daily during the peak construction period that will continue another 12 months.

The state funding for the project is through Illinois Jobs Now!, a $31 billion capital plan that will revive the state’s ailing economy by creating and retaining over 439,000 jobs over six years.

Illinois has added 70,000 jobs this year – more than any other state in the Midwest.

Rush University Medical Center is a 676-bed academic medical center that includes Rush Children's Hospital, the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center (a 61-bed rehabilitation facility), and Rush University. Rush is a not-for-profit health care, education and research enterprise. Rush University is home to one of the first medical colleges in the Midwest and includes one of the nation's top-ranked nursing colleges, as well as graduate programs in allied health, health systems management and biomedical research.

• Noticias en Español [PDF, 84 kb]