Today Governor Pritzker along with Mayor Lightfoot and other dignitaries announced the completion of the first phase of transforming the McCormick Place Campus into a new Alternate Care Facility for COVID-19 patients. This facility will be serving COVID-19 patients who do not require intensive care per Rock River Times.
Phase One consists of the following:
- 500 10ft X 10ft patient rooms furnished with beds and basic healthcare items
- 14 nursing stations
- Fully built out support rooms for medical supply storage
- Pharmacy
- Housekeeping services
Medical personnel are already prepared to staff these first 500 beds and by the end of April, the full site will bring an additional 3,000 patient rooms. As the facility takes shape, hundreds more health care professionals will be added.
"Monumental, round-the-clock dedication got this done before we needed it - preparing for saving lives in the event things become as bad as some have predicted. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois National Guard, FEMA and all of our hardworking union trades-people. In one week's time, the heroes who came together to make this possible built us a facility larger than the largest hospital in Illinois."
Illinois Governor | JB Pritzker
The state is working to stand up these additional facilities:
- Former Advocate Sherman Hospital Campus in Elgin
- Metro South Health Center in Blue Island
- Westlake Hospital in Melrose Park
- Vibra Hospital in Springfield
McCormick Place will be the state's largest alternate care facility and one of the largest ACF's in the nation. The first phase of the facility could be operational by next week.
The space has been divided into three separate units and all will be equipped with nurses stations and support rooms to treat the patients as follows:
- Unit 1 will provide initial capacity for 500 patients with tri-walled spaces for low acuity patients
- Unit 2 will provide capacity for 1,750 patients, with open-space care for fully mobile, low-acuity COVID-19 patients
- Unit 3 will provide negative-pressure isolation pods for up to 750 patients showing high transmission symptoms
This facility will alleviate some of the strain on the other hospitals. Walsh Construction drove the estimated $15 million project. The buildout for this project will be funded by the federal government.