I-90 Exit Near St. Alexius Medical Center

Volunteer Louise Peters uses a
computer kiosk at St. Alexius Medical
Center to email a message to senators
and congressmen, expressing support.

In an emergency, every minute counts. Currently, paramedics assisting critically ill or injured patients east of Route 59 must pass by St. Alexius Medical Center and travel 22 minutes farther to other emergency facilities. This is too long to wait for treatment of an oxygen starved brain, uncontrolled bleeding, or a heart attack or stroke.

To express support for the 1-90 exit, email your lawmaker.

Seeking to save lives

ABHN has stepped up efforts to win funding for I-90 exit near St. Alexius.  Trauma surgeons call it “the golden hour.” It’s the hour after a person suffers an injury, and  “it’s a good predictor of survivability, mortality and disability,” says Kelley Clancy, Vice President of External Affairs for Alexian Brothers Hospital Network (ABHN). If doctors can begin treating the person within that hour, the person’s chances of surviving and recovering improve significantly.

The golden hour is a central issue in ABHN’s intensifying efforts to win $72 million in government funding for construction of an exit ramp from the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 onto Barrington Road in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

St. Alexius Medical Center is located on Barrington Road, just south of I-90. But because the exit doesn’t exist, ambulances traveling eastbound on I-90 from areas west of St. Alexius must exit at Illinois Route 59, more than two miles west of Barrington Road, and then must take a local road to the hospital, adding precious minutes to the trip.

Ambulances carrying motorists injured in accidents on the eastbound section of I-90 between IL-59 and Barrington Road must bypass St. Alexius entirely, proceeding east to Illinois Route 53 and exiting north to Northwest   Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., or south to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove  Village , Ill. An exit at Barrington Road from eastbound I-90 would allow these ambulances to go directly to St. Alexius, saving about 14 minutes.

“That extra 14 minutes can be very, very important to your life,” Clancy says. “This is a well populated area, and I-90 is a heavily traveled road. These types of incidents can and do happen. Having this exit literally could mean the difference between life and death.”

Building the exit also is vitally important to stroke victims, whose chances of a complete recovery improve dramatically if they can receive treatment within three hours of a stroke. Because people don’t always react immediately to initial stroke symptoms, the three-hour treatment window can be shortened considerably by the time an ambulance picks them up, making travel time even more critical. After lobbying for the exit for years, ABHN has intensified its efforts lately because the population of areas served by St. Alexius has grown at a much greater rate than the  populations of other Illinois communities. In areas west of the hospital, that growth has included a sharp rise in the number of Medicaid recipients, who tend to use emergency rooms more than patients with private insurance do. These trends have increased the need for emergency services and have made the exit “a critical issue,” Clancy says.

In December, ABHN set up five computer kiosks at St. Alexius that patients, visitors and employees can use to send emails supporting the exit to U.S. senators and representatives. More than 4,000 emails had been sent by late December. Clancy hopes to win $18 million in federal funding for the exit to go along with $18 million already earmarked for the project by the State of Illinois. An additional $36 million from the Illinois Tollway will be needed to make the project a reality.

Although ABHN has received supportive responses from senators, congressmen and the Illinois Tollway, competition for funding is intense, and prospects for winning the necessary approvals remain uncertain. “Our ace in the hole is that we have a life and safety issue at stake,” says Clancy, who hopes to learn this spring whether the project will be fully funded.

To express support for the 1-90 exit, email your lawmaker.