Frequently Asked QuestionsQ. Will the replacement hospital be further away from the majority of the population Silver Cross serves? No. The location of the replacement hospital actually puts Silver Cross Hospital in the center of where the majority of our patients reside. Please know that we.ll continue to care for all the communities we currently serve including the poor and uninsured in our new location. One sure sign of our commitment is the creation of an urgent care/primary care center on this campus. This will provide healthcare services that the community desperately needs and help improve the medically underserved designation. Q. Is it really less expensive to build a replacement hospital than to repair/add to the existing campus? Yes. Unfortunately, the cost to renovate and expand the 11 piecemealed buildings on our current campus-some dating back to 1919, would be too costly-about $300 more a square foot than building new. Q. Will there be new service lines in the replacement hospital? As we develop innovative enhancements for the replacement hospital it is crucial to understand we will not be adding new service lines. Instead, we are focused on enhancing our existing services. For example, since on average we have 4 pediatric patients a day, we felt it is important to create the right size (8-bed) unit that can be properly set up for just children. In addition, we will expand our partnership with Children.s Memorial Hospital, so that parents will not have to drive to the city to see pediatric specialists. The future partnership will include specialty offices on the replacement hospital campus for the following services: cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology/epilepsy, pulmonary medicine, rheumatology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery and urology. Q. Will the replacement hospital be "green"? The trend in hospital construction has been moving towards being more environmentally friendly. We have already begun integrating enhanced environmental and health principles and practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of the new campus. This includes recycling, how we clean the facility, air quality control, and how we care for the campus grounds. Our goal is to become certified as a Leader in Energy Efficient Design (LEED™) by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is the most credible green standard. Q. Will the replacement hospital be further away from the majority of the population Silver Cross serves? No. The location of the replacement hospital actually puts Silver Cross Hospital in the center of where the majority of our patients reside. Please know that we’ll continue to care for all the communities we currently serve including the poor and uninsured in our new location. One sure sign of our commitment is the creation of an urgent care/primary care center on this campus. This will provide healthcare services that the community desperately needs and help improve the medically underserved designation. Q. Is it really less expensive to build a replacement hospital than to repair/add to the existing campus? Yes. Unfortunately, the cost to renovate and expand the 11 piecemealed buildings on our current campus-some dating back to 1919, would be too costly-about $300 more a square foot than building new. Q. Will there be new service lines in the replacement hospital? As we develop innovative enhancements for the replacement hospital it is crucial to understand we will not be adding new service lines. Instead, we are focused on enhancing our existing services. For example, since on average we have 4 pediatric patients a day, we felt it is important to create the right size (8-bed) unit that can be properly set up for just children. In addition, we will expand our partnership with Children’s Memorial Hospital, so that parents will not have to drive to the city to see pediatric specialists. The future partnership will include specialty offices on the replacement hospital campus for the following services: cardiology, dermatology, gastroenterology, neurology/epilepsy, pulmonary medicine, rheumatology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery, otolaryngology, plastic surgery and urology. Q. Will the replacement hospital be "green"? The trend in hospital construction has been moving towards being more environmentally friendly. We have already begun integrating enhanced environmental and health principles and practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of the new campus. This includes recycling, how we clean the facility, air quality control, and how we care for the campus grounds. Our goal is to become certified as a Leader in Energy Efficient Design (LEED™) by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED is the most credible green standard. Q.Why haven't we fixed up the park at the corner of Walnut & Cass Streets? Silver Cross purchased half of the land at the corner of Walnut and Cass Streets and the City of Joliet purchased the other half of the land. We donated our portion to the Joliet Park District to design and maintain it. The Joliet Park District is now responsible for fixing up this piece of property. We are told that work will begin on the park land at the end of August. Q.Will thousands of Joliet residents be at risk if Silver Cross moves to New Lenox? Access to high quality health care for ALL of the communities that we serve, including Joliet, will be improved by our replacement hospital. The most critical time for life-threatening situations is the time that it takes for an ambulance to get from the firehouse or its station to where the resident is - be they at home, on the road in a motor vehicle accident, or elsewhere. Paramedics are trained to stabilize and render care in the field to save a life. Furthermore, state regulation dictates that patients be transported by ambulance to the closest appropriate hospital based upon the time it takes to get there-not the distance. Q.What does the move mean for people in Joliet? The Silver Cross replacement hospital will mean tremendous gains in what our physicians and caregivers can offer our patients. It will give this community a new, state-of-the-art hospital that will have the latest treatments and technologies right at the patient's bedside. The new facility will ensure a safer and more healing environment in which families can be a part of the patient's treatment and recovery. It will have the flexible space and easy access necessary to provide the best possible care. We will have a partnership with Children's Memorial Hospital so that Joliet children can see world-class pediatric specialists right here in the area. On top of the best health care, we will be creating new jobs and spurring development along Joliet's East Side. Q. Why are we doing this? Silver Cross is committed to our mission to provide the highest quality health care to all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. We are proud to have been nationally recognized for our efforts by being named a 100 Top Hospital for three years in a row. After considering all possible options including building on our current campus, our Board of Trustees has concluded that a replacement hospital is the best way to ensure that Silver Cross can continue to meet our mission now and for the next 100 years. A replacement hospital on our current campus is not a viable option, as it is not affordable, would take almost twice as long to build, and be highly disruptive to on-going services. Q. Can't you just add on to the existing campus? We plan to rework the entire layout and design of the hospital to improve all aspects of patient care and to accommodate cutting-edge medical technology. We cannot achieve these dramatic changes through an addition or renovation. In addition, remodeling or adding onto our current facility has the potential to significantly compromise the quality of our care during the renovation process. Q. How will you pay for the replacement hospital? Over the years we have prudently managed our assets and invested wisely, including investments in real estate in booming Will County. Returns on these investments (interests and dividends) will cover a significant portion of this project. Plus we already own the land we are proposing to build on. Together these comprise nearly half of the project cost. The rest will be financed similarly to taking out a mortgage on a home. We believe that our strong credit rating will allow us to borrow the monies we need to build the replacement hospital. We have discussed the project with investment bankers, and they shared with us a preference for financing replacement hospital projects over major remodeling of existing campuses. Q. Isn't this much more expensive than an addition or renovation? An addition or renovation will not address the emerging and future health care standards. Our current site is close to 100 years old. Maintaining an aging facility is extremely expensive, as would be any effort to make the necessary improvements to our existing campus that would allow Silver Cross to keep pace with future medical advances and technologies. We cannot continue to spend money that does not add value to the care we provide patients. Creating a replacement hospital allows us to design for the generations of the next 100 years. For example, we can instead take advantage of modern design and technology to do things like bring imaging technology to the patient's room instead of the other way around. Modernizing can improve the care we provide patients and hold down the rising costs of health care. Creating a replacement hospital on the current campus is not affordable, would take almost twice as long to build, and be highly disruptive to on-going services. Q. Didn't Silver Cross recently make investments in our current facility? The decisions that we made years ago to invest in our campus were necessary to maintain the care we provide today. For example, our recently expanded Emergency Department is needed to meet current and near term patient need. Our Emergency Department visits are growing so rapidly that we will outgrow this capacity at about the same time that our replacement hospital will open. Q. What will this mean to long-time Silver Cross donors who have invested their money in the existing campus? Our Silver Cross benefactors have created a legacy and have been instrumental in making consideration of this new hospital possible. They are critical to the success of the hospital and will remain stewards of that legacy for generations to come. Q. Why are you leaving the community? Couldn't you find a location within Joliet? Our community is broad and does not end at the Joliet city line. We have a 100-year history of providing care to every patient in need, serving residents in numerous Southland communities. More than half of our current patients live outside of Joliet and our primary service area is naturally shifting east. A replacement hospital will allow us to expand our service to the community and ensure that the benefits we currently provide grow stronger in the future. Q. What will happen to the existing campus? We are committed to working with Mayor Schultz and Joliet and county officials to build upon the progress they have made in bringing economic development opportunities to Joliet. The city is at the forefront of growth, and we believe this site can play a valuable role in the future of Joliet. Q. At what point was the City of Joliet included in this process? The Silver Cross Board of Trustees made this decision in late June after careful consideration of numerous options. We are proud of the fact that our Board is a reflection of the community because it is made up of community members. Patients, doctors, employees, community leaders and businesses are all represented on our Board and together; they worked to come up with a plan that will benefit Joliet and the entire region for years to come. Q.Will the replacement hospital be accessible by public transportation? Yes. We are committed to ensuring good access to the new site for all patients in our service area as well as our employees and we will work with the City of Joliet and the Village of New Lenox to explore both public and private transportation options. Q. How will our replacement hospital project impact where ambulances take their patients? The rules and regulations under the Illinois Emergency Medical Services Act dictate that ambulances go to the closest appropriate facility. The location of our proposed replacement hospital will be easily accessible via the future I-355 extension, I-80, and Route 6. The replacement hospital site is more centrally located in our service area. We are excited about the increased access our new location will have on the ability for ambulances from all areas of our service area to easily get to the hospital. Q.How will we make the operational move to the new hospital? Over the next four years, we will have plenty of opportunity to develop a transition and move plan. We will work with experts that have experience with a hospital move. This plan will address each department and service individually and collectively and will include review by our clinical leadership to ensure high quality patient care is maintained throughout the transition. Q.Will there be a parking deck? There are no plans for a parking deck at the new campus. Parking decks are very expensive to build and every dollar we spend on a parking deck takes away from monies used for patient care. There will be plenty of convenient parking - 1,800 spaces. Q.What impact will the proposed replacement hospital have on jobs? A positive impact. A replacement facility will mean an influx of about 200-250 new healthcare jobs in addition to over 630 new construction and trade jobs. No jobs will be cut as a result of the replacement hospital. Further, our vision for the re-use of the existing site includes exciting opportunities for economic development and job creation in Joliet. Q. Will we have Chicago water at the replacement hospital? Yes. New Lenox receives its water supply from Lake Michigan. Q.Will the replacement hospital increase the cost of care for taxpayers? We do not anticipate any change to the cost of care for area residents. In fact, the efficiency of the replacement campus will ultimately cost less than continued operations at our current facility. Furthermore, patients will benefit from increased services in a modern facility close to home. In addition, the redevelopment of our current campus could create tax-generating revenue for the City of Joliet. Q.What do other area hospitals think about our plans? Mr. Pawlak has talked with all the Presidents of the surrounding hospitals. Some have offered their immediate support to our plans. Others have not yet formulated their opinion. We look forward to working with them as we move forward through the regulatory process in receiving approval from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. Q.Will all the physicians and employees move to the new campus? Physicians located in the Medical Arts Building and Specialty Care Pavilion will have an opportunity to relocate to the new campus. There will be two medical office buildings to accommodate these as well as other physicians interested in seeing patients at the replacement hospital. Our intention is to assist the offices on our current campus with moving to the new campus. Q.Will there be transportation for employees who walk to work? We are confident that there will be public transportation from the eastside of Joliet to the new location, especially with the advent of a mega-mall and other retail planned off the I-355 exit next to Silver Cross. We will work with both the City of Joliet and the Village of New Lenox to explore and influence both public and private transportation options. Q.Where will departments be located with the replacement hospital? We are in the beginning phases of schematic design for the new facility; however, departments and physicians who serve like patient populations will be located in close proximity for efficiencies. More information will be shared with departments in the upcoming weeks and months. Q.Has the project been approved by the State? On July 26, we submitted a Letter of Intent to the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board for the project. We will submit our Certificate of Need application in late September and anticipate meeting with the Planning Board for approval in spring of 2008. Q.How is our project different that the new hospital proposals submitted by Edwards, St. Francis and Advocate? There are many differences between our projects. However, the biggest difference is that we are not asking for new beds in our service area but simply replacing the beds we already have in our inventory. In fact, we are giving back some of our bed licenses in certain bed categories in planning for the future. Q.Do we intend to become a Level I Trauma Center? At this point, there are no plans to upgrade our Trauma status. We will continue to serve as the resource hospital for the Will-Grundy EMS System, as we have for over 30 years, when we move to the new campus. Q.Will we have a fitness center in the replacement hospital? Yes, we will have a similar if not larger fitness center in the replacement hospital. Q.Will employees need to re-apply for jobs? The answer to this question is two-fold. We are growing day by day and will continue to grow, so we will need all of our team members in the replacement hospital. In fact, we will need to add members to care for the additional patients we will serve. So, you do not have to worry about having a job. Your presence in the replacement hospital will be just as important as your presence here on this campus. Most departments will move intact and all their team members will relocate together. Q. Does the new hospital alter the plans for the urgi-care centers in Homer Glen and Frankfort? No. We will continue with our plans to build new ambulatory care centers in Homer Glen and Frankfort. We expect both of these facilities to be opened within the next two years providing emergency and diagnostic care as well as physician services to the residents of these communities. In addition, we are proposing that an urgent care facility remain on our current campus to continue providing healthcare services to the Ridgewood and eastside Joliet neighborhoods when we relocate to New Lenox in 2011. Q.Will we still support the Joliet JackHammers and sponsor the naming of Silver Cross Field? We have been a proud partner with the City of Joliet and the Joliet JackHammers in bringing fun and family-affordable entertainment to the downtown area. We are currently in our fifth year of a 15-year agreement and have every intention of continuing that support. Q. Will we still receive salary increases if we are building a replacement hospital? Yes. In our budget, we have monies allocated for Capital Expenses like the replacement hospital and separate monies allocated for Operating Expenses including pay raises. Each year, we evaluate and compare our total package (compensation, benefits, etc.) to the market and make appropriate adjustments. This will not change. We will fund the replacement hospital through a combination of returns on land investments, cash on hand, and the sale of bonds. Q.Can the Joliet City Council stop us from building a replacement hospital in New Lenox? No. The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which is appointed by the Governor, is the only agency whose approval we must receive before proceeding with the construction of the replacement hospital. We have enjoyed a positive relationship with the City of Joliet, and as always, we seek their input and value their comments as our Board continues to explore the best options for re-use of our current campus. We will continue to work with the City of Joliet in the redevelopment of our Joliet property. 
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