For the first time in more than 40 years a completely new Indianapolis downtown hospital campus will open when Eskenazi Health begins caring for patients at the new Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital on Dec. 7.
This date will mark the official first day for the new Eskenazi Hospital and the final day of operation for Wishard Memorial Hospital, which operated for a century just east of the new Eskenazi Health campus. Of the more than 1,000 public hospitals in America, Eskenazi Health will be the first new complete public hospital campus relocation since Chicago’s John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital opened in 2002 to replace Cook County Hospital.
In a highly coordinated process involving Eskenazi Health, Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services, the U.S. Naval Reserves, the Indiana National Guard, MESH, hundreds of volunteers and ambulance services from across Central Indiana, patients currently receiving care at Wishard will begin moving to the new Eskenazi Health campus on Saturday morning.
The Wishard Emergency Department will stop accepting patients at 6:59 a.m. The new Michael & Susan Smith Emergency Department at Eskenazi Health will begin accepting patients at 7 a.m. The inpatient move from Wishard to Eskenazi Health will also begin at 7 a.m.
Families and friends of patients currently hospitalized at Wishard are asked not to visit on Dec. 7 until their loved one has been moved to the new Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital. A move day hotline has been established to help families stay informed about the location of their hospitalized loved one. The hotline number is (317) 630-6300 and it will be available from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Dec. 7.
After four years and 13 days, thousands of jobs created, and 421 Indiana contractors, vendors and suppliers engaged, and more than $80 million in philanthropic funds raised, the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital and Eskenazi Health campus is opening. The new campus replaces the Wishard Memorial Hospital campus just blocks away in the heart of downtown. Eskenazi Health opens on time and on budget.
Eskenazi Health is ahead of goals for minority-, women- and veteran-owned business participation, with 17 percent of construction contracts going to minority-owned businesses, 8 percent going to women-owned businesses, and 6 percent going to veteran-owned businesses. Additionally, 90 percent of major contracts went to Indiana firms, including nearly 400 companies from the Indianapolis/Marion County metro area.
The new Eskenazi Health campus is also on pace to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the entire campus. This distinction would make it the first such health campus in the United States registered publicly in the national LEED database.
