RUSH opening new outpatient facility designed to help patients through their toughest days

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A brand new outpatient facility at Rush Medical Center is being touted as the "future of health care." It will care for over 100,000 patients in the next several years, and 60% of them will be cancer patients.

It's the newest addition and tallest building at Chicago's Rush Medical Center. The 10-story, 500,000-square-foot facility is helping modernize cancer care and more. It will even be able to provide private rooms with a view for those undergoing chemo.

And who better to help design it than a former cancer patient?

Susan Newton was a brain cancer patient and is officially in remission. She was part of the team of people that helped design the infusion floor of the building, It's a place many cancer patients know can be extremely daunting - and she wanted to change that.

"Now, seeing this space come to life, you can see our input did come to fruition. And I know a lot of times that doesn't happen but everything from the color of the walls to the fabric to the pattern of the fabric everything is what we talked about," she said.

The building will also house other clinical services, including gastroenterology, neuro-oncology, rehab, plastic surgery and even a lung center.

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"No other facility like this exists in the region," said Dr. Omar Lateef, the CEO of RUSH. "The Joan and Paul Rubschlager building is the destination center for nationally recognized top tier cancer, neurologic, digestive disease in overarching complex care."

It will be care and convenience for patients going through some of their hardest days by providing most of what they need in one place.

"We know this building will change the way countless patients will experience their care for decades to come," said Chicago philanthropist Joan Rubschlager.

Hospital officials, along with Senator Dick Durbin, helped formally open the new $450 million outpatient center in the 1500-block of West Harrison.

Inside these walls, you will find residents from the West Side community as part of the fabric of the hospital.

"Rush has hired some 720 people of the neighborhood surrounding their hospital and they are going to have a bright future because of it," Durbin said.

RUSH's new tower will begin seeing patients for the very first time on February 7.