The University of Chicago Medicine has received a $75 million donation from the AbbVie Foundation to help it build a massive new cancer hospital on the city’s South Side.
The money will go toward building UChicago Medicine’s new freestanding hospital, a 575,000-square-foot project expected to cost $815 million. The building will be called the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion and is scheduled to open in 2027.
The vision for the facility is to give residents of Chicago’s South Side, where many Black Chicagoans live, better access to cancer treatment, while also attracting patients from throughout the region and beyond.
The cancer death rate on the South Side is nearly double the national average and is the leading cause of death in the Calumet Heights, East Side, Kenwood, South Deering and Woodlawn neighborhoods, according to UChicago Medicine. Black people are also underrepresented in clinical research.
“This gift… allows us to advance health equity and expand access to this high-quality, culturally competent health care,” said Dr. Kunle Odunsi, director of UChicago Medicine’s Comprehensive Cancer Center.
UChicago Medicine has been working with the AbbVie Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to health equity, for some time, Odunsi said, and the donation was a result of that relationship.
“We are thrilled and honored to be able to support the University of Chicago Medicine and the South Side community in this way,” said Claudia Carravetta, vice president of corporate responsibility and global philanthropy for AbbVie, a North Chicago-based pharmaceutical company. and President of the AbbVie Foundation. “We’re really looking forward to expanding access to preventative and comprehensive cancer care for patients in the South Side community and the broader community.”
UChicago Medicine first announced the facility would be built in 2022, and the project began last September on East 57th Street, between South Maryland and South Drexel avenues.
The cancer hospital will have 80 beds for patients who need to stay overnight, 90 consultation and examination rooms, an urgent care clinic for cancer patients, imaging facilities, dedicated clinical trial space, white space to accommodate future needs, and will also accommodate support services. for patients and their families.
Hospital leaders hope patients will be able to receive almost all their cancer care at the hospital, rather than having to travel to multiple locations for testing and treatment. This will make it easier for researchers, scientists and doctors to work together, Odunsi said.
“We think that having a place, a central hub, where all these people can come together and interact will also accelerate our ability to break new ground and accelerate the pace of new discoveries,” he said.
Hospital leaders also expect the cancer hospital to take some of the pressure off the busy main hospital, freeing up more beds there for patients with other needs.
The project was originally expected to cost $633 million and include 128 beds for overnight patients, but in 2023 UChicago Medicine said the cost had risen to $815 million and the number of beds would be cut due to “hyperinflation” and design changes.
The $75 million donation is one of the largest gifts ever to UChicago Medicine. In 2017, the Duchossois family donated $100 million to UChicago Medicine to create the Duchossois Family Institute to study how the immune system, microorganisms in the body and genetics can work together to keep people healthy.
In 2020, the AbbVie Foundation also committed $8 million over five years to UChicago Medicine to create the Care Links program, which places health care workers in the community to help residents navigate health care and help them connect to resources and services healthcare.
Originally published:
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