About UI Health

Points of Pride

A PATIENT-CENTERED ORGANIZATION

The University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics is a patient-centered organization. Providing safe, high-quality, and cost-effective care for our patients is our foremost responsibility. The care of our patients and their families will always be at the heart of our mission.

OUR MISSION

To advance health for everyone through outstanding clinical care, education, research, and social responsibility.

Overview

• A 445-licensed-bed hospital, caring for more than 135,000 unique patients every year.
• The state-of-the-art, 245,000-square-foot Outpatient Care Center houses 21 primary and specialty care clinics. 
• 13 federally qualified Mile Square Health Centers located in neighborhoods throughout Chicagoland.
• The seven University of Illinois at Chicago health science colleges — the Colleges of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Applied Health Sciences; the Jane Addams College of Social Work; and the School of Public Health — contribute to the development and training of healthcare professionals in Illinois.
  

Research & Technology

• UI Health provides a cure to patients with sickle cell disease through stem cell transplantation and without the need for chemotherapy. The procedure — developed at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and validated at UI Health — relies on transplanted cells from a healthy, tissue-matched, full sibling. Patients receive immunosuppressive drugs just before the transplant, along with a very low dose of total body irradiation, a treatment much less harsh and with fewer potentially serious side effects than chemotherapy. Next, the sibling donor cells are transfused into the patient. Stem cells from the donor produce healthy new blood cells in the patient, eventually in sufficient quantity to eliminate symptoms of sickle. In many cases, sickle cells can no longer be detected. The Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at UI Health is the only center in the Chicago area to treat both children and adults.
• NOVA (non-invasive optimal vessel analysis) technology, software to quantify the volumetric blood flow rate in the vessels of the brain, was pioneered at UI Health. NOVA incorporates interactive 3D images that provide a fully rotatable, 360-degree view of vasculature that allows for precise identification of each vessel for volumetric blood flow calculation. NOVA provides physicians with the flexibility to evaluate entire vasculatures or pinpoint specific areas within a vessel that may be of concern.
• UI Health neurosurgeons were the lead investigators of the VERiTAS study, which examined subsequent stroke risk among symptomatic vertebrobasilar disease patients with distal blood flow compromise. Using NOVA to perform quantitative magnetic resonance angiography, researchers were able to determine patients' distal blood flow and identify those with a high risk for stroke. The ability to identify high-risk patients at an earlier stage has important implications for future investigations into therapies for stroke.
• UI Health is a leader of The Chicago Diabetes Project, an international research initiative dedicated to curing diabetes with islet cell transplantation.
• UI Health manages The Chicago Hispanic Community Health Study Field Center for the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, the largest ongoing study of Hispanic health to date. The multicity study has revealed a unique set of health risk factors and insights into the prevalence of certain diseases, including diabetes and hypertension, for this diverse population.
• UI Health is one of just 13 centers in the United States to offer the Argus II retinal prosthesis to help individuals with certain eye diseases and stages of blindness learn to see again.
• The University of Illinois Hospital is consistently named to Hospital & Health Networks' "Health Care's Most Wired" list.
• State-of-the-art imaging systems — including digital mammograms, 3T and 9.4T MRIs, molecular imaging, and PET-CT — lead the way in clinical care and research, including more precise diagnoses for cancers and neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases.

Community Commitment

• UI Health has been named a Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's Health Equality Index for our commitment to quality LGBTQ care.
• Better Health Through Housing, UI Health's "housing first" program, helps provide permanent housing and intensive case management to chronically homeless individuals. The initiative's combination of healthcare, housing, and human services fosters a sense of home, independence, and self-determination to help speed individuals' reintegration into the community, promotes long-term health, and reduces overall healthcare costs.
• Project HEAL supports increased testing and linkage to care for HIV HCV, and Diabetes.
• PRONTO transportation service, a partnership with Chicago health-access startup Kaizen Health, utilizes ride-hailing service Lyft to provide free rides to patients being transitioned home from medical surgical and critical care units.
  
• UI Health partners with A Silver Lining Foundation to help women obtain mammograms. More than 11,000 women (and men) have received access to free testing and information at UI Health through the program since 2006. 
• UI Health annually partners with other Chicago hospitals to introduce Child Life to families through an event called "A Day in the Hospital." The program helps kids feel comfortable with the hospital environment in case they ever need care and educates parents about resources they can access if their child is ever hospitalized.
• Since 1995, UI Health has organized Miracle on Taylor Street to sponsor children and families in the communities we serve during the holiday season, providing toys, clothing, reading materials, and hundreds of dollars in donations. 
• The UI Health Cancer Clinic is recognized by the Commission on Cancer a program managed by the American College of Surgeons, as a provider of a full spectrum of cancer care, including prevention, early diagnosis, cancer staging, optimal treatment, rehabilitation, lifelong follow-up for recurrent disease, and end-of-life care. Facilities accredited by the CoC diagnose and or treat more than 70 percent of all newly diagnosed cancer patients.

Program Excellence

• UI Health physicians are national leaders in clinical care and research. Dozens of our providers have been recognized among the best doctors in Chicago in a number of specialties, including cancer treatment. And we consistently have more than 100 providers named to the America's Top Doctors list each year.
• UI Health is certified by The Joint Commission as Comprehensive Stroke Center, with a team of physicians from several disciplines working together to provide the highest level of stroke care 24/7.
• The Bariatric Surgery Program is recognized as an American College of Surgeons Level One Center of Excellence — the highest level of accreditation — and is the only medical center in Illinois certified as a Comprehensive Center with Adolescent Qualifications by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program.
• Designated as a Blue Distinction Center+ for Maternity Care and Bariatric Surgery by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.
• The UI Health Stroke Institute and Division of Cardiology have received “Get with the Guidelines” awards from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association for their commitment to patient care and outcomes.
• The Division of Cardiology was the first in the Midwest to perform an improved, laser-guided treatment for atrial fibrillation (AFib).
• The Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology has one of the largest recurrent pregnancy loss programs in North America, offering hope to women and their partners who have suffered previous miscarriages. Its midwifery program also is the largest in Chicago and one of the largest in the Midwest.
• UI Health is a leader in living donor transplantations. We have one of the best kidney and liver transplant programs in the United States and one of the most prominent transplant programs for Hispanic transplant recipients. 
• UI Health is the first academic medical center in the Midwest to offer the LenSx® femtosecond laser to select cataract patients. This laser system, with accuracy to a few hundred-thousandths of an inch, allows eye surgeons to optimize patient outcomes.