Edward Hospital to expand cardiovascular services with nearly $29 million project

The Edward Hospital campus in Naperville is home to a lot of firsts.

“We were the first heart hospital in the state of Illinois. We're the first ambulatory surgery center to be built in the Chicagoland area. We put our stake in the ground for cardiovascular care in the Western suburbs,” says Yvette Saba, president of Endeavor Health Edward Hospital.

But with only 20 operating rooms, it’s experiencing capacity constraints. Citing a rapidly aging population in its primary service area, the hospital told state regulators the “projected demand for cardiac, vascular and thoracic surgery is expected to be high.”

So Endeavor plans a nearly $29 million project to expand cardiovascular services at Edward Hospital. The project calls for adding two new operating rooms and relocating two existing ones to the fourth floor of the Edward Heart Hospital. The project also includes a new, 10-bed intensive care unit on the fourth floor of the tower.

“We're the downtown hospital in the suburbs, and there is a need in our market, and no one should have to leave their community for cardiovascular care,” Saba said. “We know our limits. We will never do a transplant. There's certain things we won't ever do, but we'll do everything pretty much up and close to that.”

Earlier this month, the Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board approved a certificate of need permit for the project. The board’s vote comes almost two years after Endeavor unveiled a 170,000-square-foot cardiovascular institute pavilion at Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview.

A striking new stand-alone building on the Naperville hospital campus houses what Endeavor says is the first cardiac ambulatory surgical center in the Chicago region. It was built to offer outpatient services for cardiac catheterizations and electrophysiology procedures that were typically done in hospital settings.

“Even moving out the outpatients to the ambulatory surgery center still demonstrated a need for our inpatient ORs,” Saba said.

Those cases that remain in the hospital “tend to be more complex, with longer procedural times,” according to the hospital’s permit application. As a result of the project, Edward will have 22 operating rooms.

“With that capacity, it will really allow our patients with cardiovascular disease, those that were requiring cardiac surgery, to get their cardiac surgery in a very timely manner, without waiting and not seeking other hospitals or institutions … like a Northwestern in the city when we can do it, but our capacity was an issue,” said Cathy Smith, system vice president for the Endeavor Health Cardiovascular Institute.

The 10 additional ICU beds will “expand access to critical care by easing patient wait times for admission during peak demand and emergencies,” Edward noted in the application, which the state board received this past October. Edward’s ICUs have consistently operated above 70% occupancy for more than five years. The state standard is 60%.

The goal is to complete the project by the end of December 2027. The hospital says it also will support physician recruitment and retention.

“Reliable access to OR time allows physicians to use their time more efficiently and maximize productivity, which is essential as the state of Illinois faces critical shortages in certain physician specialties,” the application reads.

Saba stressed the importance of having “these regionalized destinations.”

“There’s a shortage of surgeons, cardiovascular surgeons. There's a shortage of cardiologists. There's a shortage of cardiac anesthesiologists. There's a shortage of nurses that can do this specialty,” she said.

“So when you have large volume and a single site where you can consolidate your resources … having all that in one place, not having to duplicate those resources a lot of different places, we'll bring the best of the best to our organizations to provide the care.”

• Daily Herald correspondent Alicia Fabbre contributed to this report.