By Larry Atseff | Photos by Victor Hilitski
Northwestern Medicine’s Outpatient Center, at 1001 Commerce Drive, Oak Brook, parallel to 31st Street, is now open.
“This beautiful, 80,000 square foot outpatient center bridges the gap between Northwestern Memorial Hospital downtown and Northwestern’s hospitals in the western suburbs,” says Patrick Towne, MD, president of Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group.
“With easy access to major expressways, residents no longer have to travel 10 to 20 miles for Northwestern Medicine’s world-class health care.”
The facility houses immediate, primary, and specialty care and offers diagnostic imaging, physical therapy, and a laboratory.
The Immediate Care Center, open seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to the last registration at 7:30 p.m., offers routine walk-in availability and innovative accessibility with virtual visits. The first floor also features a Health Lab draw site and diagnostic imaging services, including ultrasound, mammography, CT, MRI, and DEXA bone density scan.
The Northwestern Medicine Cancer Center Oak Brook fills the entire seventh floor. The hematology and oncology clinic has nine exam rooms, a procedure room, a pharmacy, and a laboratory for onsite diagnostic services.
Patients receive cancer treatment from oncology-trained nurses in one of 10 private infusion rooms with large windows allowing for natural light. Additional support services include social work and nutrition counseling.
The sixth floor is devoted to orthopaedics, spine care, and rehabilitation services. X-ray is located just steps from the eight exam rooms to provide rapid evaluation and diagnosis of musculoskeletal pain and disorders.
A large therapy gym provides ample space for exercise and equipment. The rehabilitation services team includes physical, occupational, and speech therapists. In addition to orthopaedic interventions, specialty services include custom orthoses fabrication as well as treatment of oncology, lymphedema, vestibular, neurological, and movement disorders.
Level five is a multidisciplinary floor with cardiology, cardiac testing, neurology, primary care, and pediatrics. The cardiology clinic features four exam rooms and an imaging reading room for cardiologists and specialists from the nationally recognized Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. Cardiac testing includes echocardiograms, stress tests, and stress tests with echo.
Katie Lammie, Director of Operations at Northwestern Regional Medical Group, says, “The centralization of all these disciplines is not only more convenient for everyone, it encourages more collaboration among the medical staff, which, in turn, leads to more effective and more timely outcomes for patients.
In addition, the setting is warm and welcoming, and because it is all new, it boasts the latest in equipment and procedures in patient care. I think we have pretty much thought of everything, including plenty of free indoor parking. It all follows our motto, ‘What makes us better, makes you better.’” ■
