State OKs Central DuPage Hospital expansion plan

Patients at Central DuPage Hospital soon will be able to count on never having to say hello to a roommate during their hospital stay.

Despite concerns about the project's size and scope, the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board today approved the hospital's plans to build a 202-bed wing on its sprawling Winfield campus.

The $257 million expansion project will pay for a five-story, 325,000-square-foot addition with all private quarters, replacing two wings built in the 1970s with mostly double-occupancy rooms.

The project will be financed by a combination of bonds and nearly $82 million in cash and securities.

State officials questioned whether the price tag is excessive, noting the cost is comparable to some entire hospitals the agency has approved.

Alternative renovation plans the hospital considered but rejected in its state application - including options to convert double-occupancy rooms to single rooms - would have cost $100 million less than the new tower.

But hospital officials argued in their application that those proposals would have interfered with patient care and added two years to the construction timetable.

Central DuPage Hospital CEO Luke McGuinness defended the cost estimates, arguing the expansion is necessary to provide for the care of an aging DuPage County population.

"We have no interest in paying any more than we have to," McGuinness said. "I would rather have the money in our budget and not use it than not have the money at all."

Larry Bell, director of construction for Central DuPage, said the hospital expects to begin construction on a new parking deck in January, which will replace some parking spaces lost because of the addition. Construction of the bed tower is expected to begin in January 2009 and be completed by the end of 2011, he said.

The hospital recently completed a four-year, $194 million modernization plan that centralized its maternity and pediatrics care programs under one roof and added space for doctor offices and outpatient care.

The Winfield hospital is expected to come before the state health agency again in the coming months to ask for approval to build a proton therapy cancer treatment center.

The proposed cancer center is the second such facility to be proposed in DuPage County - Northern Illinois University hopes to build a similar facility in West Chicago - and among just eight in the United States either being considered or in operation.