Suburban Chicago newspaper The Daily Herald reported over the weekend that Endeavor Health’s Edward Hospital plans a nearly $29 million investment to expand its cardiovascular services.
The 20-OR facility in Naperville, Ill., is struggling with capacity issues, and told state regulators that due to its primary service area’s rapidly aging population, “projected demand for cardiac, vascular and thoracic surgery is expected to be high.”
With that in mind, The Daily Herald reports, the project would add two new ORs while relocating two existing ORs to the fourth floor of the Edward Heart Hospital.
“We’re the downtown hospital in the suburbs, and there is a need in our market, and no one should have to leave their community for cardiovascular care,” Yvette Saba, the hospital’s president, told the newspaper. “We know our limits. We will never do a transplant. There [are] certain things we won’t ever do, but we’ll do everything pretty much up and close to that.”
The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board has approved a certificate of need permit for the project.
The article also notes that the hospital campus houses what Endeavor says is the first cardiac ASC in Chicagoland. It performs cardiac catheterizations and electrophysiology procedures that had been performed at the hospital, but the hospital’s inpatient OR capacity issues remain.
Expanding from 20 to 22 inpatient ORs will better allow patients “to get their cardiac surgery in a very timely manner, without waiting and not seeking other hospitals or institutions … like a Northwestern in the city,” Cathy Smith, system vice president for the Endeavor Health Cardiovascular Institute, told the newspaper.
Ms. Saba additionally told The Daily Herald that the expansion will help the hospital consolidate resources to better handle patient volume, as well as compete for providers amid nationwide shortages in cardiovascular surgeons, cardiologists, cardiac anesthesiologists, and specialized cardiovascular nurses.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2027.
Read The Daily Herald’s full report here.
