January 6, 2005

Rehab Institute, hospital will lease VA land

The VA acquired this property on the Chicago campus from Northwestern in the 1950s.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) will lease the land occupied by the former VA Lakeside Medical Center (VALMC).

In August 2003, the VA shifted the facility’s inpatient services to the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center on Chicago’s West Side.

The Lakeside Outpatient Clinic remains on the former VALMC site, and under the terms of the lease, the VA could continue to operate the clinic until Dec. 31, 2007. Feinberg School of Medicine students and faculty and residents in the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern continue to staff the Lakeside outpatient clinic. They also provide care to veterans at the Jesse Brown VA facility.

The Jesse Brown VA is a major affiliate of the Feinberg School and its clinical education programs, along with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Children’s Memorial Hospital and RIC.

The NMH-RIC “enhanced-use lease” for the Lakeside site is expected to generate up to $50 million for the VA.

The VA acquired the property from Northwestern University in the 1950s and built the hospital in 1954. The hospital became affiliated with Northwestern the following year and was an important clinical education facility for medical students, residents and fellows.

Both NMH and RIC are eager to expand their facilities. Since 1999, when NMH opened its $580 million, 482-bed replacement hospital measuring 1.2 million square feet, the hospital has operated at or near capacity. One block away, the RIC operates its flagship 165-bed inpatient facility. RIC has grown to offer inpatient care, outpatient care and day rehabilitation services at more than 30 sites in the Chicago area and southern Illinois.