Sinai Chicago is Illinois’ largest private, not-for-profit safety net healthcare system. Their service area includes 1.5 million Chicagoans living on Chicago’s west and southwest sides who are disproportionately affected by illness, poverty, community violence and related challenges. Sinai Chicago is there for these communities—primarily serving low income Black and Latino patients—where inequality and segregation persist. Nearly 90% of Sinai’s patients rely on Medicaid, Medicare, or are uninsured.
With the support of Washington Square Health Foundation, Sinai Chicago was able to provide a post-surgery recovery room to improve the patient experience, decrease infection rates, and increase recovery times. This project is part of Sinai’s larger build-out of an Ambulatory Surgical Center at our new development at Ogden Commons.
Ogden Commons is a mixed-use development project that is the biggest investment in North Lawndale in over a decade. In this space, Sinai Chicago operates the One Lawndale Community Care and Surgery Center, which offers a robust level of quality care in a welcoming, convenient, and modern facility for timely ambulatory and in-patient procedures. The newly constructed, state-of-the-art space houses Sinai Chicago’s new ambulatory surgery services, renal dialysis center, urgent care center, and GI laboratory. Patients also have access to nurse navigators, community health workers, and Sinai Community Institute’s intensive case management services.
“One Lawndale” aligns with Sinai’s strategic vision of expanding outpatient services outside of the hospital into a more patient-centered, cost-efficient setting. The Ambulatory Surgery Center enables Sinai Chicago to offer quicker access to a greater number of needed outpatient surgical services. This new center will increase the capacity for outpatient, ambulatory surgery from 7,000 to approximately 10,500 surgeries per year.
For outpatient surgery it is critical to ensure that each patient is medically stable to leave the clinic, which includes a post-surgery recovery room. The goal of this room is for medical staff to monitor each patient as they come out of anesthesia and manage patient comfort and level of pain. Vitals such as temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate are monitored to ensure the patient is stable before being discharged to go home. Family and other caregivers are also invited into the room, to ensure clear instructions for post-surgical recovery and management of pain.
This service is critical to not only increasing patient satisfaction but also for making health care accessible and relevant for the individuals in our communities. Support to meet the community’s needs is essential for a Sinai Chicago that creates greater equity and inclusion, meets our patients where they live, and offers state-of-the-art, personal care for all.
“The challenges we’re facing in healthcare across Chicago and the nation are real, and I believe the sustainability of Sinai Chicago and other safety nets is about partnership, finding collaborators willing to work together, along with our community residents, to address disparities. We need creative and innovative solutions to ensure that everyone has access to quality care, no matter where they happen to live.” —Dr. Ngozi Ezike, President and CEO, Sinai Chicago
