More than 500 local residents and patients of Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago’s Little Village and Lawndale neighborhoods loaded buses for Springfield this morning to urge lawmakers for state funding support critical to building a new hospital as part of the Focal Point Community Campus. The new hospital, which will move Saint Anthony from its current 125-year-old facility, will anchor the mixed-use development and feature 150 inpatient beds as well as advanced services and technology that will improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. “Saint Anthony Hospital has been providing top-of-the-line care to families on the West and Southwest Sides of Chicago, regardless of their ability to pay, for more than 125 years. Our current and historical hospital building is beautiful, but it is also out-of-date and ill equipped to provide the healthcare our community deserves,” said Guy A. Medaglia, President and CEO of Saint Anthony Hospital. “We are asking legislators to allocate state funding toward a world class facility that meets the needs of our community.” 

The hospital’s current facility at 2875 West 19th Street was built in 1898 and is inefficient and outdated for today’s medical needs. The new, state-of-the-art hospital building will offer 150 inpatient beds and emergency, intensive care, pediatrics, maternity and behavioral health care departments, and will feature private patient rooms with wall-sized monitors to display information on each patient’s condition and care team. “We have never turned someone away at Saint Anthony, even as the health needs of our neighbors soar,” said Dr. Eden Takhsh, M.D., M.B.A., Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at Saint Anthony Hospital. “In the height of the pandemic, we operated over capacity serving the direst cases and administered more vaccines to these hard-hit communities than any other hospital in Chicago. Today, we continue to see high rates of asthma attacks and visits to our emergency department, a consequence of the pollution in our service area. Where you live impacts your health, but it shouldn’t impact your care, and it is past time for our patients to receive the health facility they deserve.”