A $100 million hospital improvement project by Sinai Health Systems (SHS) will be supported with up to $31 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) assistance under a plan approved today by City Council.

The assistance will support the rehabilitation of SHS’s Mt. Sinai Hospital campus at 1500 S. Fairfield Ave. in North Lawndale. Planned to be completed over the next eight years, the improvements will enhance inpatient and outpatient care, increase the capacity of community services, and extend the useful life of the seven-building facility.

Located within the Midwest TIF district, Mt. Sinai operates as a 319-bed teaching, research and tertiary-care center that provides medical, surgical, behavioral health, therapeutic, and diagnostic services to the West Side. Founded in 1919, the hospital is one of only four Level 1 Trauma Center facilities in Chicago.

The TIF assistance will be provided in annual installments over the next nine years based on the completion of specific construction milestones. Planned construction projects include laboratory and radiology department renovations, power system upgrades, replacement of air handing equipment and hot water systems, hospital room upgrades, dialysis facility improvements, and the relocation of surgical intensive care facilities, among other projects.

Mt. Sinai and its affiliated clinics provide care for more than 300,000 individuals per year. The need for Mt. Sinai's services has grown as other area hospitals have closed or altered services in recent years, including St. Anne's Hospital, Cabrini Hospital, Sacred Heart Hospital, and Bethany Hospital.

With 4,100 full- and part-time employees, Mt. Sinai is the largest employer in North Lawndale and one of the largest private Medicaid providers in the State of Illinois. Approximately 92 percent of patients are covered only by Medicaid or Medicare, or are uninsured. The facility improvements would create 250 temporary construction jobs.

SHS also consists of Sinai Children's Hospital, Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital, Sinai Medical Group, Sinai Community Institute, and Sinai Urban Health Institute, and Holy Cross Hospital.

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