New hospital wings and towers are going up in many suburbs, continuing a trend toward private patient rooms and comfortable, soothing amenities.

Last year, Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva opened a 100,000-square-foot patient tower with 52 private rooms.

Two more are just under way and scheduled to open in 2011. They are at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, where a new wing will house 202 private rooms, and at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville, where a major expansion and modernization will add 44 new rooms and make virtually all rooms private.

Here's information on other hospital expansions that just opened for use or will be opening soon.

Advocate Lutheran General

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital's eight-story, 192-bed patient tower - which opens this month - incorporates recycled materials, natural lighting and sustainable design into patient care at the Park Ridge facility.

Officials aim to make the hospital the largest in Illinois and the Midwest with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certificate.

Each room in the addition is private, bringing the hospital's total capacity - including the children's hospital - to 675. The new rooms have floor-to-ceiling glass windows and lounges on each new floor offer views of the Chicago skyline.

Rooftop gardens allow space for patients and their families to engage in activities. Rainwater will feed 31,000 native plants on the property before reaching city storm sewers.

About $25 million of the project's $200 million total was raised by the community.

Alexian Brothers Medical Center

Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village on May 21 dedicated its newest addition: the five-story, $120 million East Tower with 108 private patient rooms.

The addition allowed the hospital to convert all its existing patient rooms to single rooms, resulting in a capacity of 387 beds.

The East Tower's ground floor includes space for all outpatient diagnostic services, including MRI and CT scans, X-rays and mammograms. New bed space is also allotted for surgery, intensive care and monitoring cardiac recovery patients.

The hospital expects all operations in the East Wing to be running by September.

Northwest Community Hospital

Northwest Community Hospital's new eight-story patient care addition will offer 200 private rooms in addition to a number of features designed to encourage healing.

The $250 million addition is expected to open May 1, 2010. At that time, 80 percent of the hospital's rooms will be singles, as opposed to 25 percent now.

Private rooms are being touted as a way to prevent the spread of infection in hospitals. In addition, they will allow more space for families who come to visit.

The glass building is designed to provide more natural light. In addition, designers have set aside open space in atriums and walkways. At the same time, patients will have more privacy and additional control over their environment.

Hospital officials plan to add healing gardens to the glass building, therapeutic art and sculpture and an eco-friendly "green" design.

The first floor will include half of the newly expanded emergency department, slated to open in late fall. At that time, the current ER space will close for renovations. When the full ER is completed, it will be twice as large as it is now.

Sherman Hospital

Doctors, nurses, employees and patients at Elgin's Sherman Hospital are preparing for a Dec. 15 opening of a $325 million 255-bed hospital upgrade, including a new state-of-the-art hospital at the corner of Big Timber and Randall roads in Elgin and an immediate-care facility at the hospital's Center Street campus.

The 645,000-square-foot replacement hospital at Big Timber and Randall will include a stand-alone Cancer Care Center offering comprehensive treatment options, including radiation oncology, a six-floor inpatient bed tower, an attached Medical Office Building along with an Emergency Department offering in-room check-in and large private rooms. All beds in the hospital are in private rooms, and the building looks out on an environmentally friendly, 15-acre geothermal lake that will help heat and cool the hospital, saving more than $1 million per year in energy costs.

Operating rooms are 600 square feet compared to previous ORs of 400 square feet. The hospital says its new design promotes fast check-in and less waiting and will be adaptable to new innovations and health care technologies.

The Sherman Family HealthCare Immediate Care Center on Center Street will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and provide high-level imaging, dialysis, an outpatient lab and X-ray facilities as well as outpatient rehabilitation services, including physical therapy and cardiac rehab.

For details, visit www.thefutureofsherman.com.