UChicago Medicine completes final stage of CCD, moves in 156 patients

August 28, 2016

The University of Chicago Medicine transported 156 patients to newly constructed rooms in the Center for Care and Discovery (CCD) on Sunday, Aug. 28, completing the final stage of construction in the hospital building that first opened in 2013.

The carefully choreographed day-long effort was planned for months to emphasize patient safety. The move involved more than 300 employees, ranging from physicians and nurses to pharmacists, respiratory therapists, safety observers, elevator operators and patient transporters, all of whom ensured seamless patient care.

The patients were relocated from the academic medical center's Mitchell Hospital to new units on the CCD's third and fourth floors. Some patients were also transported from other units in the CCD.

The CCD's third floor will provide care for patients in UChicago Medicine's multi-specialty surgical units and the burn and complex wound center. The fourth floor will accommodate patients of the Heart and Vascular Center. Each floor has 98 patient beds for intensive care, medical-surgical patients, those needing 24-hour observation and isolation cases.

The two floors in the 1.1 million-square-foot building were deliberately left vacant during the CCD's initial construction to give the medical center more flexibility to meet the anticipated growing demand for medical care. When it first opened on Feb. 23, 2013, the CCD was the single largest expansion in UChicago Medicine history.

Mitchell Hospital is being redeveloped into a dedicated facility to treat cancer as part of UChicago Medicine's Get CARE effort. UChicago Medicine is also building new outpatient facilities in the suburb of Orland Park and Chicago's South Loop.

UChicago Medicine is now licensed to operate 805 beds.