Palos Community Hospital Retrospective: 40 Years in the Making

From its humble beginnings as farmland in the 1920s that supplied fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, and dairy products to St. Bernard Hospital in Chicago’s Englewood community, Palos Community Hospital and the land it occupies has long been a source of health and wellness. As the needs of the area have evolved over the years, so too has the land, but always with the same goal in mind. Developing that once rich farmland into a place of healing was a natural extension of a deeply rooted mission that has always been at the core of Palos Community Hospital – to provide world-class compassionate health care to the people of the southwest suburbs.

The Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph originally purchased 175 acres in the Palos area in 1920. As the surrounding communities started to spring up, sections of the property were sold to build homes, subdivisions and community infrastructure. In January of 1970, ground was broken on the remaining 40 acres with plans to build a hospital that would care for this rapidly growing community, which in the previous 10 years had nearly doubled in size from 69,000 to 135,000.

Taking Root

Palos Community Hospital opened its doors with 265 beds and more than 600 employees on March 19, 1972. In 1978, the north building was constructed, and by 1985, the hospital had added a pediatric unit, Same Day Surgery, its first two birthing rooms, the Inpatient Chemical Dependency program, and another 171 beds, bringing our licensed bed capacity to 436. In August of that same year, the Palos Primary Care Center opened in Orland Park, providing satellite health care services in the form of an Immediate Care Center, lab and radiological testing, physical therapy facilities, cardiac rehabilitation and 27 private physician offices.

During the next five years, Palos continued to grow with the addition of the Southwest Comprehensive Cancer Center on the main campus, a cardiac catheterization lab and oncology unit at the hospital, and a joint venture with St. Francis and Little Company of Mary to form Southwest Hospitals’ MRI. The hospital also completed construction on its Data Information Systems building and an expansion project that doubled the size of the Primary Care Center.

Fulfilling a Mission

For the next 20 years, the hospital and its satellite facilities continued to keep pace with the burgeoning community of 400,000. In 1991, Palos opened its newly renovated Maternal Child unit and became the first hospital in the region to provide single-room maternity care where the mother labors, delivers and recovers all in the comfort of a home-like private room. To this day, Palos is still the only hospital in the area to offer this advanced level of maternity care.

In 1995, the Ambulatory Care Center opened on the east side of the main hospital, featuring expanded outpatient services, and new Emergency and Physical Therapy departments. That same year, Palos launched its Home Health services in Lemont, and by the end of the decade, the hospital introduced Palos Health & Fitness Center in Orland Park, a hospice program to complement its Home Health program, and an expanded Immediate Care Center in Orland Park.

In 2005, Palos unveiled one of its largest undertakings to date: the introduction of Cardiac Surgery and the Interventional Cardiology Program, which included the opening of two state-of-the-art cardiovascular surgical suites and a new 16-bed Cardiovascular Unit (CVU). That was followed in 2006 by the addition of two new Cardiac Catheterization labs, which enabled Palos to begin offering such interventional catheterization treatments as balloon angioplasties and cardiac stents. From September of 2005 through March 2012, Palos Community Hospital has performed more than more than 1,400 open-heart surgeries and nearly 3,000 interventional catheterizations.

Over the past 10 years, Palos also has introduced digital imaging and mammography in its Radiology Department, launched the WAGS animal assisted therapy program, installed onsite MRI technology, opened the Palos Sleep Disorders Center in Palos Heights and the Palos Diagnostic Center in Tinley Park, created a hospitalist program, and established its own physician practice – Palos Medical Group.

Committed to the Future

With the population of the hospital’s service area expected to surpass 650,000 by 2012, advancements at Palos Community Hospital show no signs of slowing. In August 2010, ground was broken on a 400,000-square-foot expansion that features all private rooms, state-of-the-art surgical and intensive care suites, integrated procedure services facilities, and the innovative Center for Short Stay Care. The new Hospitaller Pavilion opens March 19, 2013.

Our plans for the future don’t end there. After we open the Hospitaller Pavilion, renovation will begin on the existing hospital, which will be known as the St. George Pavilion. The phase 2 plan includes development of a Breast Health Center and a Cardio-Pulmonary unit, relocating the Cardiology intake area, and completing an expansion of the Emergency Department.

As our community and the art of practicing quality and compassionate health care continue to grow and evolve, so too does Palos Community Hospital. Our goal has always been – and will continue to be – to provide the highest caliber of care in a compassionate, healing environment. Palos is poised to serve the health care needs of the people of the southwest suburbs for many generations to come. Forty years is just the beginning.