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CANCER CARE, REIMAGINED
BY LORNA WONG
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE PLANS TO BUILD A $633 MILLION, 500,000-SQUARE-FOOT FACILITY DEDICATED TO CANCER CARE ON ITS MEDICAL CAMPUS ON THE CITY’S SOUTH SIDE, REPRESENTING ONE OF THE LARGEST INVESTMENTS MADE BY THE ACADEMIC HEALTH SYSTEM FOR PATIENTS AND THE COMMUNITY.
The plan for Chicago’s first freestanding clinical cancer center includes the addition of 128 beds. These beds will be dedicated to patients with cancer, allowing UChicago
Medicine to open other beds for patients with complex or acute care needs in areas such as organ transplants, digestive diseases, cardiology, orthopedics and trauma care. This, in turn, will help address some of the capacity constraints for the medical center, whose beds are full most days of the year.
As one of only two National Cancer Institutedesignated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in
Illinois and the only academic medical center on the South Side, UChicago Medicine is uniquely positioned to reimagine cancer care for the community and the City of Chicago. The “Comprehensive” distinction is the gold standard for cancer programs bestowed by the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and recognizes the innovative research, leading-edge treatments and extensive community outreach and education initiatives conducted at or by the organization.
49% THE PERCENTAGE THE CDC PREDICTS THE NATION’S CANCER RATES WILL INCREASE BY FROM 2015 TO 2050
ADDRESSING HEALTH INEQUITIES
The South Side has experienced shrinking healthcare resources for many years. Now, about 56% of patients on the South Side leave the area to get healthcare. For cancer needs alone, 67% of residents who are seeking inpatient care leave the South Side. Research has found that patients living farther from healthcare facilities have worse health outcomes, longer lengths of hospital stay, nonattendance at follow-up visits, higher rates of chronic disease-related deaths, lower five-year cancer survival rates and increased overall disease burden. Residents of the South Side also carry a high cancer burden. The problem is expected to grow worse: The CDC predicts the nation’s cancer rates will increase by 49% from 2015 to 2050. “Cancer death rates on the South Side are almost twice the national average, and cancer is the second-leading cause of death for area residents,” said Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, Director of the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This is one of the key reasons we are building this cancer center. Social determinants of health are not only linked to adverse environmental exposures but also to a lack of resources, including access to disease prevention, early detection and high-quality cancer care.” If approved, the new cancer center will add to an emerging ecosystem of care on the South Side, where community hospitals provide access to care to vulnerable and lower-income patients and where academic health systems like UChicago Medicine play a critical role in treating the sickest patients and those who require complex care. Indeed, a collaborative of 13 South Side care providers, including UChicago Medicine, are working to establish the South Side Healthy Community Organization, which is being scoped to serve over 400,000 residents with more seamless and more accessible healthcare. The model will add 90 primary care providers and obstetric hires, access to nearly 50 priority specialists, 250 community healthcare workers/coordinators and a connected care technology platform.
BEDS WILL BE DEDICATED TO PATIENTS WITH CANCER IN CHICAGO’S FIRST FREESTANDING CLINICAL CANCER CENTER128 UNDERSTANDING THE PATIENT
A significant portion of the planning and design will focus on the patient and family experience, including making sure all services throughout the care journey are in the same location and creating a healing and stress-reducing environment. “A diagnosis of cancer is a life-altering event for the patient and their loved ones,” said Tom Jackiewicz, President of the University of Chicago Medical Center. “We want to design a place that brings back the human side of healthcare, one that really thinks of people as individuals and not as a breast cancer patient or a colorectal cancer patient. They will be seen as an individual and as families coming to us for the best cancer care available.”
“CANCER DEATH RATES ON THE SOUTH SIDE ARE ALMOST TWICE THE NATIONAL AVERAGE, AND CANCER IS THE SECOND-LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR AREA RESIDENTS. THIS IS ONE OF THE KEY REASONS WE ARE BUILDING THIS CANCER CENTER.”
KUNLE ODUNSI, MD, PHD The cancer center, which includes inpatient and outpatient care, will have a focus on prevention and early detection of cancer and be a hub for research into the more aggressive forms of cancer that affect residents on the South Side and many other communities of color across the country. “The South Side is the epicenter of healthcare inequality in the city, and the healthcare community needs to begin listening to the experiences of South Side patients and investing in better care options for patients of color if we are going to improve health outcomes for Chicago’s underprivileged communities,” said Candace Henley, a cancer survivor, founder of The Blue Hat Foundation and member of the UChicago Medicine Community Advisory Council. “Everyone deserves the opportunity to fight their best fight against cancer.” Pending regulatory approval, construction of the new facility will begin in 2023, and it will open to patients in 2026. For now, community members will be asked to provide input on patient experience, amenities such as food and retail options, references for prevention services, and other features of the new cancer center. Learn more: uchicagomedicine.org/cancer/ new-cancer-center
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER RECENTLY RANKED AS ONE OF THE TOP 15 CANCER CENTERS IN THE NATION, ACCORDING TO U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT.
