Sinai Health System Receives $7M from CARES Act Funding for Ambulatory Surgery Center at Ogden Commons

Sinai Health System will receive $7 million for its Ambulatory Surgery Center from a Community Development Block Grant as part of the CARES Act funding for the City of Chicago. The funding allocation was approved by the City Council on June 17th.

“At Sinai Health System, we have spent over a century caring for people living in the most underserved communities on Chicago’s West and Southwest sides, many disproportionately affected by illness, poverty and other social challenges,” said Karen Teitelbaum, President and CEO of Sinai Health System. “Set against the background of both COVID-19 and the issues of racial disparities brought to the forefront in the wake of the death of George Floyd, the Ogden Commons project represents a critical extension of Sinai’s legacy of reaching beyond our own hospital walls to provide much-needed resources to our community. We want to thank Mayor Lightfoot and the City Council for making an investment that will be truly transformative for the West Side.”

Ogden Commons is one of the first significant investments in North Lawndale in decades. The 11-acre mixed use development is an overall partnership between Sinai Health System, the Habitat Company, Cinespace Chicago Film Studios and the Chicago Housing Authority. The project will enhance health access for the community through Sinai’s planned Ambulatory Surgery Center and expanded dialysis program, as well as provide employment and economic opportunities that are critical gateways to improved health outcomes for the West Side such as mixed-income housing, retail/commercial space, and jobs.

Sinai Health System at Ogden Commons will continue Sinai’s 100-year history of providing ready access to critically needed specialty care for a community with such a high burden of illness. Sinai’s Ambulatory Surgery Center at Ogden Commons will enable Sinai Health System to offer quicker access to a greater number of needed outpatient surgical services. The Sinai program also will add capacity and efficiency to a much-utilized dialysis program, greatly needed due to the disproportionate burden of kidney disease in the community.

Investment in the Ogden Commons project will help address health disparities in underserved communities that have been higlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patients stricken with COVID-19 in the communities served by Sinai had mortality rates of 17%, versus 4.5% in the Chicago or Illinois.

“This is simply unacceptable. The heavier burden of illness in our communities of color must be addressed, and has been Sinai’s mission for a century,” said Teitelbaum. “We’re at a pivotal moment and this sort of financial commitment means much more than bricks and mortar; it’s about ensuring vitality, employment, safety and good health in a part of Chicago plagued with disparities. All Chicagoans deserve good health, no matter where they live.”