The Gazette at 25: Consistent news coverage fosters growth of Medical District 

By Jean Lachowicz 

The Illinois Medical District (IMD) and the wide-ranging concentration of healthcare-related institutions on the Near West Side have been a continuing focus for Gazette news coverage since the paper was founded in 1983.

            Today the IMD is the world’s largest urban medical district. Bounded on the north by Congress Parkway, on the east by Ashland Avenue, on the west by Oakley Boulevard, and on the south by 15th Street, it coordinates continuous healthcare delivery and medical teaching, research, and technologies.  

IMD and Chicago Technology Park

The IMD’s roots go back to when Cook County Hospital, Rush Medical College, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons (later to become the University of Illinois College of Medicine) opened on the Near West Side after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The Illinois General Assembly officially created the IMD in 1941. Over time, the original member institutions grew and were joined by organizations including the Veteran’s Administration Hospital, Cook County Medical Examiners’ Office, City of Chicago Department of Health, Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Illinois State Police Forensic Science Center.

            For half a century, the Livingston family took leadership roles in the IMD. Park Livingston was one of its first commissioners and a member of the University of Illinois board of trustees; along with State Representative Vito Marzullo, he helped create the IMD. Park’s son David O. Livingston served as IMD executive director until his death in 1998. Tom Livingston, David’s nephew and Park’s grandson, served as executive director from 1998 until 2003, when the current executive director, Samuel Pruett, took the position.

            According to Tom Livingston, “The Near West Side is unique in that you have a student community, a patient community, and a residential community together in one place. The Gazette has told their evolving stories with heart and integrity, and it is a great community asset.”

            Chicago’s concentration of high-tech resources within the IMD led to creation of the Chicago Technology Park (CTP). In 1984, the Gazette reported on plans by Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and the University of Illinois, along with the Medical Center Commission, the City of Chicago, and the State of Illinois to create an “incubator” for small start-up companies and provide funds to consolidate land within the designated park area.

            A 1985 Jobs for Metropolitan Chicago report by the Commercial Club of Chicago highlighted the Near West Side’s role in boosting the city’s economy. The report documented across-the-board job losses in the city, with the exception of the IMD and the CTP, which made Chicago a national healthcare center. The incubator officially opened in 1986, and the CTP was off and running.

            The CTP also brought in CSI-style forensic organizations. The Gazette covered the opening of the new FBI headquarters in 2002 as the largest FBI facility outside Washington, DC. The Cook County Medical Examiners’ Office and the Illinois State Police Forensic Science Center brought even more investigative technology to the CTP.

 

Patient services

            For the past 25 years, the Gazette has covered groundbreaking research and expansion at prestigious medical institutions serving the community.

            The 1982 merger of the University of Illinois Medical Center and Chicago Circle campus created the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the largest institution of higher learning in Chicago. The Gazette has spotlighted UIC medical stories ranging from organ transplantation and pharmaceutical botanicals to dental breakthroughs and quality of aging to HIV/AIDS, brain tumors, and blood disorders.

            According to Mark Rosati, UIC’s associate chancellor for public affairs, “UIC is the State of Illinois's primary educator of healthcare professionals. We estimate that one in every six Illinois physicians, a third of the state's pharmacists, and more than 40% of the state's dentists are UIC alumni. UIC operates the nation's largest college of medicine (including the main campus in Chicago and the regional sites in Peoria, Rockford, and Urbana-Champaign) and one of only two remaining colleges of dentistry in the state. UIC is one of the few universities in the nation that offers all six health sciences colleges: medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, and applied health sciences.

            “Our Medical Center and affiliated clinics serve more than 600,000 patient visits annually. A key part of our mission is training health professionals who are dedicated to caring for underserved communities in both urban and rural areas of Illinois. For example, the UIC College of Dentistry is the state’s largest provider of Medicaid dental services, including pediatric services,” Rosati added.

            In 1987, Rush Medical College—one of the first medical schools west of the Allegheny Mountains and the first institution of higher learning in Illinois—marked its 150th anniversary. Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center, now Rush University Medical Center, has figured in stories about endometriosis, cancer research, gene therapy, and orthopedics.

            Medical articles often focus on patient services, such as University of Illinois’s I-Trauma eye care center, ambulatory care facility on Taylor Street, and modern outpatient center. The university unveiled its MRI scanner, the most powerful in the world, in 2004.

            National healthcare policies and the ongoing State budget crisis riddled Gazette headlines in 1986 when the UIC Hospital’s budget deficits led it to refuse care to uninsured patients. Hospital employees and advocates founded the Committee for Humane Health Care to lobby for funding to care for the uninsured.

            The Gazette’s coverage now extends well beyond the IMD, and the newspaper regularly reports healthcare stories from other communities. Mercy Hospital’s innovative drug treatment for stroke patients, expansion projects, special events, and personnel profiles highlight top stories for this 150-year-old Near South hospital.

 

Veterans Administration Westside

The VA Westside Medical Center was poised to enter the new millennium as a state-of-the-art facility for the area’s military veterans, but its future suddenly went up for grabs in 1996 when the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced it wanted to reorganize and consolidate medical operations in the Great Lakes region. The Gazette’s extensive coverage of every twist and turn in the ensuing struggle ranks as one of its most significant accomplishments in 25 years.

            The VA initially wanted Westside to become an outpatient site and Lakeside Hospital on Chicago’s Gold Coast to be used for inpatient medical and surgical services. According to UIC officials, the VA’s plans would have crippled the University of Illinois College of Medicine, disrupted patient care, and hurt revitalization on the city’s West Side. Because UIC partners closely with VA Westside, removing its inpatient and surgical services would have seriously impeded educational opportunities for students.

            Then-Senators Paul Simon and Carol Moseley-Braun and numerous other legislators successfully leveraged a stunning decision: “Victory for Westside VA and UIC as feds announce medical, surgical units to stay” (Gazette December 1997).

            Although an additional skirmish occurred two years later with talk of closing inpatient psychiatric care and sending those patients to Hines VA Hospital in the west suburbs, the Gazette reported in August 2001 that Lakeside would close and offer only outpatient care, and Westside would get improvements.

 

Cook County Hospital

For years, policymakers and residents knew the old Cook County Hospital desperately needed upgrading. Behind its grand terra cotta façade standing tall over the Eisenhower Expressway sat a dangerously old-fashioned ward layout and a serious lack of modern amenities such as air conditioning. The only debate: whether the facility could be rehabbed or should be replaced.

            The Gazette’s coverage of County Hospital began in 1983 with a story about safety violations throughout the old structure. For the next 15 years, stories documented proposals for a new hospital including taking over Provident Hospital, building several smaller centers instead of one large hospital, affiliating with U of I Hospital, or even having Cook County buy U of I Hospital from the State.

            Officials opted for a new building and broke ground in 1998; construction continued until the hospital’s opening in late 2002. Almost immediately, debate flared over the historic building’s fate. Then-County Board President John Stroger led the charge to demolish it while preservationists worked on ways to redevelop it. In July 2004, the Gazette reported the National Trust for Historic Preservation had listed the building as one of the year’s 11 most endangered historical places in the country.

            Cook County Commissioner and Finance Chairman John P. Daley said the Gazette has benefited the community greatly for 25 years. “The Gazette brings issues forward and always represents the concerns of the people. It makes people aware of problems as well as remedies that have occurred. The paper was instrumental in saving the old Cook County Hospital building and helped tremendously to put pressure on commissioners to take the preservation of the building seriously.

“The Gazette is well read among elected officials—they are very cognizant of its presence. It is always informative about what is available to the community, with excellent coverage of important new developments, such as the CORE Center for HIV patients,” said Daley.

 

Medical District Neighborhood

With the IMD’s boundaries roughly the same as the Near West Gazette’s original coverage area before the publication expanded to additional communities, IMD news always has intertwined with news about the people who live and work here.

            On the positive side, the neighborhood is a stone’s throw from some of the most respected medical facilities in the world. On the negative side, district growth has displaced residential communities and longstanding commercial, religious, and social institutions. Also, proximity to such a high concentration of institutions often provided fertile ground for conflict between residents and the IMD.

            Security has been an ongoing source of concern. Tens of thousands of nurses, physicians, technicians, support staff, patients, visitors, students, and faculty stream through the community daily.

            In the mid-1980s, after a violent attack on a nurse in a hospital parking lot, the Illinois Nurses Association filed a grievance against UIC to improve security. In October 1986, the assault and murder of Rush nursing student Lori Roscetti ignited the security issue. The Gazette promoted better communication between residents and institutions and extensively covered safety options such as shuttle services and campus escorts.

            For 25 years, the Gazette has reported on special opportunities IMD institutions frequently make available to area residents, such as paid research studies, free care, and events open to the public. Gazette profiles of outstanding individuals and resources have given these large institutions a personal face, especially when they help local residents in tangible ways.