Stroger Hospital of Cook County

Proud History and Bright Future

Cook County Hospital and Cook County Childrens Hospital have long served as the safety net for the medically indigent population of Chicago.  In December 2002, these hospitals moved to the new 1.2 million square foot Stroger Hospital of Cook County, with Pediatric Inpatient Services located on the fourth floor.   The new facility offers innovation in medical technology, while remaining committed to the long-term tradition of community-focused hospital care that began more than a century ago. 

Pediatric residents at the new  Stroger Hospital have significant learning opportunities in the emergency department and the pediatric, critical care, and neonatology units.  The busy pediatric emergency room at Stroger Hospital receives patients brought by Chicago Fire Department ambulance and transferred from other hospital emergency rooms around the city.  In addition to  treating life threatening conditions, broken bones, and major illnesses leading to hospitalization or surgery, residents in the ER will gain experience treating the large volume of patients seeking care for urgent medical issues such as asthma, minor injuries, and infections.  

Stroger Hospital is a perinatal center with a wide high-risk pregnancy referral base of seven inner-city hospitals.  Neonatal and maternal transport systems provide a patient base with a wide variety of surgical, cardiac, genetic, and other neonatal problems.  Residents working in the 52 bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit are closely supervised by neonatologists and fellows in an academic setting as they care for neonates with complex medical problems including prematurity, metabolic disturbances, ventilator-dependence, and congenital anomalies.   In addition, Stroger Hospital has an excellent Neonatology Fellowship program. 

Pediatric residents in the second and third year of training provide high quality patient care and receive excellent education in the state of the art 12 bed critical care unit.  Severely ill children with a wide range of diagnoses, mostly medical, are cared for in the PICU.  In addition, pediatric residents in the PICU co-manage pediatric general surgery and trauma surgery patients with the surgery service.  Stroger Hospital is a Level 1 pediatric trauma center, adding to the complexity of these patients.  In addition, residents rotating in the PICU are consulted to evaluate all children admitted to the burn intensive care unit.

Stroger pediatric residents also study and learn at the adjacent Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center, the nation's first free-standing outpatient facility addressing the medical and social needs of people with HIV/AIDS and other chronic infectious diseases.  Opened in 1998, the CORE Center offers compassionate, holistic, multi-disciplinary care as well as leadership in infectious disease, clinical, and behavioral science research for pregnant women, children and adolescents.

The Pediatric Ambulatory clinics (including the Continuity Clinics for residents) are located in the Fantus Health Center on the Stroger hospital campus.  This building is named for Bernard Fantus, who opened the world's first blood bank at Cook County Hospital in 1937.   A few Continuity Clinics are also run at the nearby South Lawndale Clinic. 

The educational experiences for the residents are further enhanced through required rotations at St. Anthony Hospital and at LaRabida Children's Hospital.  At St. Anthony Hospital, residents receive a first-hand experience of pediatric services as run by private practitioners. The rotation at LaRabida Hospital provides residents with significant insight regarding chronic care services for children with rheumatologic and pulmonary disorders. 

A recently-added 5-floor structure adjoining the new hospital provides vehicle parking spaces for residents.