The public will soon get a chance to check out the new $200 million Franciscan Health Crown Point Hospital, which opens on Jan. 28 after years of construction.

The new hospital at the Interstate 65 and U.S. 231 interchange will host a public open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13.

The new hospital replacing the nearly 50-year-old formerSt. Anthony Medical Center at 1201 S. Main St. in Crown Point is one of the major healthcare projects that will come online, get started or make significant progress in the new year. After getting a record $30 million donation from The Dean and Barbara White Family Foundation, Franciscan Health also plans to build a 71,000-square-foot, three-story cancer center at the new hospital in Crown Point that's slated to be completed by 2026.

This spring, UChicago Medicine plans to open a $121 million, two-story, 130,000-square-foot micro-hospital at Interstate 65 and 109th Avenue in Crown Point. It will be its first freestanding medical facility in Indiana and its largest facility outside of its home base in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.

UChicago Medicine, which also partnered with Methodist Hospitals on neonatal intensive care services at its Southlake Campus in Merrillville and Northlake Campus in Gary, is expanding its footprint in the Region beyond a few doctors' offices. The new micro-hospital will have an emergency room, an inpatient unit for short stays and a comprehensive cancer center. It also will have an outpatient surgery center, imaging infusion and laboratory services.

Doctors specializing in cancer, cardiology, digestive diseases, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, transplant medicine and womens health also will occupy a new medical office there.

Lake County Economic Alliance Interim President and CEO Don Babcock said the new UChicago Medicine and Franciscan Health hospitals likely would spark more medical development in the area.

"I believe we'll continue to see health-related development," he said. "Over the last 15 to 20 years, healthcare providers have been investing in quality hospitals that are in greater competition with Chicago. You're likely to see ancillary development around the hospitals. Professional offices will want to be close to those facilities."

They also will help spark more general development, Babcock said.

"It has a multiplier effect," he said. "Health care tends to have high-paying jobs. With that comes more wealth, disposable income and development."

Community Healthcare System filed plans to build a cancer center at 10191Broadway in Crown Point. The three-story, 68,000-square-foot facility would be next to the stroke and rehabilitation center it opened in Crown Point in 2019.

Construction is close to being completed at Community Healthcare System's relocated Immediate Care Center on Calumet Avenue in Munster. The 32,000-square-foot, two-story building will replace the existing immediate care facility at 1946 45th St. in Munster, which will be turned into physician office space.

It will treat common injuries and illnesses, provide occupational health care and host doctor's offices for pediatricians, family medicine physicians and ear, nose the throat doctors.

Spokeswoman Karin Saltanovitz said it was slated to open in early 2024 but no date had yet been set.

Franciscan Health will open its new seven-story 199-inpatient bed hospital at12750 Saint Francis Dr. in Crown Point by the end of January. It will be able to expand to 300 rooms and expand its diagnostic and treatment centers as demand warrants.

Michigan City-based Tonn and Blank Construction, which is owned by Franciscan Alliance, constructed the building, which includes an attached medical office. It constructedbathrooms, headwalls and medical office exam rooms off-site before installing them at the construction site.

The open house will include tours, refreshments, live entertainment, chair massages, kids' activities and live ice sculpting. People can get free health screenings, including for body mass index, bone density, blood glucose, blood pressure, pulse oximetry and spirometry.

Franciscan Health places to raffle off prizes like a boombox speaker, an Apple watch, a mountain bike, an Apple iPad and a 75-inch TV.

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Major hospital, healthcare projects to shape Region in 2024 - The Times of Northwest Indiana