Chicago ranks among the country's leading centers for health care and referral as well as for medical training and research, generally due to the university hospitals, teaching centers, and medical facilities. Hospital facilities in Chicago have undergone major changes in the past 25 years, however. Between 1980 and 2004, the number of hospitals in Chicago has shrunk by nearly 35 percent, from 64 hospitals in 1980 to 42 in 2004, representing a decrease in hospital beds by nearly 50 percent.
The University of Chicago Hospitals, nationally recognized for training and research, are associated with the University of Chicago colleges of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy; individual facilities are Bernard Mitchell Hospital, Wyler Children's Hospital, the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine, and Chicago Lying-in Hospital. A full range of general and specialized services are available as well as a chemical dependence program, corporate health services, an eating disorders program, geriatric and health evaluation services, and centers for treatment of kidney stones and sexually transmitted diseases.
One of Chicago's major privately-run health care facilities is Rush University Medical Center, which is affiliated with Rush Medical College and Rush School of Nursing. The 830-bed hospital operates centers for treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, cardiac ailments, sleep disorders, alcohol and substance abuse, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and arthritis. The complex also houses organ and bone marrow transplant units as well as the Chicago and Northeastern Regional Poison Control Center. According to a 2004 report in U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" issue, Rush has earned more specialty rankings than any other hospital in Illinois.
Medical Information: Rush University Medical Center physician referral, (888)352-RUSH. University of Chicago Hospitals physician referral, (888)UCH-0200.