Groundbreaking Friday for children’s hospital in Hoffman Estates

The long-awaited children’s hospital at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates will take less time to erect than had been anticipated.

A groundbreaking celebration is scheduled for Friday at the Stonegate Conference Center right around the corner from the current hospital on Barrington Road. Mark Frey, executive vice president for Alexian Brothers Health System, attended Monday night’s Hoffman Estates village board meeting and spoke about the project.

Thanks to last month’s announced acquisition by Ascension Health, Frey said, Alexian will have more money available and that will enable workers to complete construction on the $117 million six-story wing by mid-2013. Ascension, based in St. Louis, is the country’s third-largest health care provider.

“The additional capital that’s going to be brought to the community through the partnership with Ascension Health is absolutely the catalyst for making that happen much, much earlier than originally anticipated,” Frey said.

Alexian Brothers held a massive fundraising campaign to get the project started. A rise in the number of children in the area — a 25 percent projected increase in the next 20 years — prompted the need for the children’s wing, Alexian officials said. Construction started in September 2010 with work on parking decks for the new hospital.

Frey pointed out that the deal with Ascension still requires approvals from the Illinois Attorney General’s office and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board. Planning board spokeswoman Kelly Jakubek said on Tuesday they have yet to receive paperwork from Alexian and Ascension.

Normally, after the board deems a submitted application complete, there’s a 60-day review period for such merger proposals, which are called certificates of need. That time gives the public a chance to review the application and ask for a public hearing and also give input to the board.

Frey reminded the village board that the merger would make Ascension the largest Catholic health system in the country.

Adding Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village and St. Alexius represents a return to the Chicago market for Ascension. They departed Chicago in 2009 after leaving St. Joseph Hospital in the city’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Officials said they don’t anticipate scrubbing the Alexian name or any shuffling of administrators after the deal becomes finalized. Alexian’s name recognition locally — with the network sponsoring events including the Tour of Elk Grove cycling race and the Alexian Brothers Fitness For America Sports Festival in Hoffman Estates — is a boost, Ascension officials said.

Alexian Brothers, which long had a hospital in Elk Grove Village, took over the Hoffman Estates Medical Center in 1999.

“They’ve done a great job; it’s come a long way since Hoffman Estates Medical Center,” Hoffman Estates Mayor William McLeod said.