State and city officials among dignitaries to attend new hospital dedication

Event to mark economic impact of $700 million, 1.2 million-square-foot Center for Care and Discovery

WHAT: Center for Care and Discovery economic-impact dedication ceremony and media tours

WHEN: Monday, Jan. 14, 2013

• 10:30 a.m. dedication
• 11:15 a.m. interviews with event speakers
• 11:30 a.m. media tours of new hospital

WHERE: 7th Floor Sky Lobby, 5700 S. Maryland Ave., Chicago

WHO: Among scheduled attendees:

• Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn*
• House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn-Currie*
• Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno
• Sen. Kwame Raoul*
• Rep. Mary Flowers
• Rep. Christian Mitchell*
• Chicago Ald. Edward Burke, 14th Ward
• Chicago Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th Ward*
• Terry Mason, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Cook County Health & Hospitals System
• Arnold Randall, General Superintendent, Forest Preserve District of Cook County

From the University of Chicago/medical center:

• Robert Zimmer, PhD, president of the University of Chicago*
• Kenneth Polonsky, MD, executive vice president for medical affairs for the University of Chicago* and dean of the Biological Sciences Division and Pritzker School of Medicine*
• Sharon O'Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center*

* Scheduled speakers

Ravi Salgia, MD, director of the University of Chicago Medicine's Chest Oncology and Thoracic Oncology Research Program and vice chairman of Translational Research, his patient Anthony Palumbo will be on hand to help with the ceremonial ribbon-cutting. Robert McGee Jr., president of II in One Rebar, will represent the thousands of contractors and workers who helped build the new hospital. University of Chicago Medicine executives will be available for interviews following the news event at 11:15 a.m.

OTHER DETAILS: A "mult box" is being provided. Parking will be available at East 57th Street and South Drexel Avenue. Because the event is being held on the 7th Floor of the new hospital, you are encouraged to be on campus by 10:20 a.m. Hospital tours will be given to only those media outlets that sign up by 8 a.m. Monday, Jan. 14. Email Lorna Wong at lorna.wong@uchospitals.edu in advance to schedule a tour.

VISUALS: Besides the ceremonial ribbon-cutting with a stunning downtown skyline backdrop, visuals include:

• Government officials touring the new hospital
• Opportunity to interview Sharon O'Keefe, president of the University of Chicago Medical Center
• Minority business owner(s) who played a substantial role in the new hospital's construction
• Expansive Sky Lobby with panoramic city and lake views
• State-of-the-art operating rooms, intensive care units, spacious patient rooms with views (all of which will be closed off to the public starting in February)

About the Center for Care and Discovery
The University of Chicago Medicine's new Center for Care and Discovery will welcome its first patients on Feb. 23. The 1.2 million-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility will be one of the most advanced clinical and surgical centers in the country dedicated to specialty care including cancer, gastrointestinal disease, neuroscience and advanced surgery and high-tech medical imaging.

Since its groundbreaking in 2009, the hospital has already contributed a total of about $558 million in economic activity, including $430 million in Illinois through contracts paid plus wages and benefits. Of the total construction contracts available for bid, more than 48 percent went to minority- and women-owned business owners.

The new hospital contains 240 single-occupancy patient rooms spacious enough to accommodate families for overnight stays. The rooms, located on the perimeter of the building for greater privacy, have large windows that provide stunning views of the University of Chicago campus, Lake Michigan, Washington Park and the Chicago skyline. Flat-screen TVs, reading lights, dual-layer window treatments and a high-tech paging system that eliminates the need for overhead announcements underscore the University of Chicago Medicine's commitment to patient-centric care.

For physicians, nurses and researchers, the Center for Care and Discovery is a technological tour de force with the space that will encourage true multidisciplinary treatment. It boasts space for 28 operating rooms with integrated diagnostic and interventional platforms for specialty care. It was designed by the award-winning architect Rafael Viñoly, who also is responsible for the acclaimed Charles M. Harper Center at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. The new hospital is largely made up of repeating modular cubes that can be repurposed over time to accommodate innovations and changing medical needs.