Patients seeking world-class clinical expertise will soon have a new destination center with the opening of the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building — home to the RUSH Cancer Center.
The new $450 million facility was opened for tours and a reception to celebrate its completion on Friday, Jan. 13. The new building is slated to open to patients in early February.
The Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building will be the premier Chicago-area destination for cancer and neuroscience care and provide a wide variety of services, including radiation therapy, infusion therapy, diagnostic imaging, integrative medicine and expanded clinical trials. RUSH Digestive Diseases will begin seeing patients in the building in July 2023.
The building will help ensure that RUSH provides the kind of care patients want and deserve. It features:
- Personalized and convenient care — with new and improved features that give patients a health care experience they can’t get anywhere else
- Design where every detail was developed with patients in mind and décor specifically chosen to promote healing
- A new industry-leading, first-floor lab that analyzes samples and sends results to providers in minutes
- Bright, spacious infusion rooms that provide convenience and privacy, with TV monitors and plenty of space for a friend or family member to be with the patient
- All-gender restrooms
- An adult changing table
- Wheelchair storage nooks on each floor of the building
- A variety of seating options with tables, equipped with charging stations and flexible chair options for patients of all ages and physical abilities
- Convenient parking
- Streamlined check-in areas
- Chicago skyline views from many patient treatment rooms
“RUSH has a bold vision for the future focused on providing care in convenient ways that patients want and need, in their communities, in their homes and on their mobile devices. The Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building reflects RUSH’s commitment to excellence and innovation,” said Dr. Omar Lateef, CEO of RUSH.
“RUSH has grown and now reaches from downtown Chicago to Aurora, across suburban communities and to Northwest Indiana, to offer convenient access to the highest level of care to patients where and when they need it. This facility will serve as a hub for much of this care, and it was built around what patients tell us is most important to them.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin took part in Friday's event.
“RUSH continues to deliver cutting-edge, personalized treatment for a range of different cancers and brain conditions,” he said. “And thanks to federal investments that help make the new Rubschlager Building possible, researchers and clinicians will be able to expand their state-of-the-art treatment and research efforts for patients. This new site will build on RUSH's legacy of caring for the community, and I’ll continue advocating for the resources they need to save more lives.”
Located at the northeast corner of Ashland Avenue and Harrison Street on Chicago’s near West Side, the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building is directly connected to a new, six-story, 900-space enclosed parking garage, as well as a fourth-floor walkway joining it to the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Tower on the other side of Ashland Avenue. Each floor of the garage is named after a neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, celebrating the RUSH commitment to the health and wellness of the community.
The RUSH Cancer Center will care for 127,000 patients by 2027, a nearly 50% increase over current numbers. Consistently ranked among the nation’s best, the RUSH Cancer Center will provide the most advanced cancer care, including nearly 40 cancer care services.
Among the many elements that place the patient at the center of their care needs, the RUSH Cancer Center will offer private rooms for patients receiving infusions. The security and comfort of these spaces was a priority for designers of the new building, given how much time patients often spend in them.
The Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building will also house many of RUSH Neurosciences' highly ranked programs, including neurology and neurosurgery, brain tumor and epilepsy and stroke care and general neurology. RUSH Digestive Diseases, endoscopy and nutrition, as well as RUSH Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, RUSH Plastic Surgery and the RUSH Lung Center also have a home in the new building.
The enhancements to the delivery of care were born out of a series of patient focus groups that made it clear that comfort, privacy and infection prevention were priorities for them. Optimizing the patient experience was the primary driver of the building’s design as planners approached the project beginning in 2019.
Understanding that many patients need lab tests like blood draws before appointments, RUSH placed the laboratory on the first floor, adjacent to the lobby, to allow patients to stop there first. The building will include the latest in lab technology, which allows blood samples to be analyzed quickly on site. This innovation improves patient care by providing accurate, timely information to guide effective treatment decisions and help clinicians diagnose complex cases.
For more information or to schedule a tour of the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building, contact Tobin Klinger, RUSH director of media relations, at tobin_klinger@rush.edu or (224) 571-6542.
