Healthcare in Northwest Indiana has continued to expand and modernize thanks to various construction projects and growing interest from prominent Chicago-based providers.
Construction in the region in recent years has replaced the old hospital infrastructure with a new one.
City of Crown Point officials and Franciscan Health gathered in late summer 2020 for a ceremonial groundbreaking of a new $200 million hospital at Interstate 65 and US 231. The hospital is now nearing completion.
It will replace the current Franciscan Health Hospital in Crown Point, formerly St. Anthony, which was built in 1974. The new hospital follows Franciscan’s construction of a similar new hospital in Michigan City. Franciscan Health-Michigan City, at Interstate 94 and US 421, opened in 2019.
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The old Franciscan Hospital in Michigan City, on Homer Street, was remodeled to house Franciscan Health Michigan City Behavioral Health, a 14-bed unit, and the Prenatal Care and Health and Wellness for Adults (PACE) program.
Franciscan is also partnering with Beacon Health System to open Franciscan Beacon Hospital in LaPorte in summer 2020.
In October 2020 Northwest Health-LaPorte opened a new $125 million hospital, a 200,000-square-foot facility on the same campus as the old LaPorte Hospital. Northwest Health will soon demolish the old hospital after moving all services provided there to the new hospital.
Meanwhile, Northwest Medical Group last fall opened a new office in Michigan City. The healthcare group, which also has hospitals in Valparaiso and Knox, built a new 9,500-square-foot medical office at 6923 West 400 North in Michigan City.
Community health system, which opened a 129,000-square-foot community stroke and rehabilitation center on Broadway in Crown Point, is currently building a new immediate care center on a farm on Calumet Avenue in Munster. The two-story, 32,000-square-foot building will replace the existing urgent care location at 1946 45th St. in Munster.
The new facility will offer immediate care services for common injuries and illnesses, imaging and diagnostic and occupational health services. It will also house doctor’s offices for pediatricians, family medicine doctors, and ear, nose, and throat doctors.
The current urgent care center will be converted into a doctor’s office. The building is expected to open in October.
Chicago is expanding in the NWI healthcare market
Franciscan Health has entered into partnerships with Chicago-based providers for neonatal care and for cancer and neuroscience care.
Franciscan Health Crown Point and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital are partnering to provide neonatal care, with Lurie neonatologists providing medical care in the 20-bed Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the new Franciscan Health Crown Point, beginning in September.
And Rush University Health System and Franciscan Alliance will partner on cancer and neuroscience clinical services at Franciscan Health hospitals in Crown Point, Dyer, Hammond, Michigan City and Munster.
Rush and Franciscan previously partnered on neurological care for stroke patients in Franciscan’s emergency departments. Rush breast surgeons will also operate at Franciscan Health’s Munster and Dyer campuses.
Rush is also making its own mark in the region, recently opening its first outpatient center outside of Illinois in Munster. Rush has opened a new outpatient medical facility at 9200 Calumet Ave. with 19 exam rooms, x-rays and other testing options.
Rush also has a Midwest Orthopedics medical clinic at Rush Physical Therapy in Munster.
UChicago Medicine is building a $121 million, two-story, 130,000-square-foot microhospital at Interstate 65 and 109th Avenue in Crown Point, its first stand-alone medical facility in Indiana and its largest facility outside its main base in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood .
The facility will have an emergency department and an inpatient facility for short-term stays. It will also feature a comprehensive cancer center, ambulatory surgery center and infusion and laboratory imaging services. A medical office building there will host experts in cancer, cardiology, digestive disease, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, transplant medicine and women’s health.
UChicago Medicine also partners with Methodist Hospitals for neonatal intensive care services. Methodist’s Southlake Campus in Merrillville is a Level II NICU accepting babies born at 32 weeks or later. The Northlake Campus in Gary has a Level III facility that accepts babies as young as 24 weeks.