Little Tony, Saint Anthony Hospital's mascot, registers his excitement over one of the new electric cars in the hospital's fleet.If many of its patients suffer from asthma, how can a hospital not only treat their illness but also ease their symptoms and even help keep them from getting sick in the first place?
For Saint Anthony Hospital in Chicago, part of the answer is now on the city's Southwest Side streets, now in the form of three electric vehicles. The trio of Kias bring adult and pediatric patients in for treatment, free of charge, to the hospital or any of its six community clinics around the city.
Medaglia"The population that we serve, many of them don't have transportation," said Guy A. Medaglia, the president and CEO of Saint Anthony. "Unless we go and pick them up, they can't come in for things like COVID shots or flu shots or if they need clinic visits.
"We found this out because we are out in the community. I've been here for 17 years, finding out the needs of the people in the community. It is really important to be able to pick them up. We don't bill for it. We don't get any money for it. And I think that's some of the reason we were able to secure a grant."
The money for the vehicles — which are brightly wrapped with the hospital's name and a picture of its life-sized mascot, a bear named Little Tony — came from the city in the form of a $150,000 Chicago Climate Infrastructure Fund grant. The funds paid for the electric vehicles and the installation of two charging stations. Medaglia said Saint Anthony is the first hospital in the city to make use of electric vehicles.
The impulse behind the whole plan, he added, is the hospital's legacy as a force in its community, where it logs about 35,000 emergency room visits a year and has a pediatric patient population of 30%.
"We're a little stubborn over here," Medaglia said. "We're fighting for an underserved community, and sometimes underserved communities can't fight for themselves. So we have to fight for them. We don't like losing."
Medaglia noted the ongoing concerns about air quality, which is worsened by emissions from gas-burning vehicles. "In today's world, if you're going to put a fleet together, electric cars are the way to go, so I challenged members of our team to see if they were able to obtain any grants," he said.
The electric cars are not the only change Saint Anthony is involved in. It is transitioning to a new location, known as the Focal Point Community Campus, that is about two miles away and planned to open in 2027 or 2028, on 30 acres. The campus will provide affordable living spaces as well as wellness, education and workforce development opportunities.
Medaglia said the hospital will keep close track of how the campus develops, to make sure that area residents are not negatively affected from the necessary demolition and new construction.
"Data is very important," he said. "We wanted to measure the quality of the air as the demolition is going on. The community wanted their own person to also track the air quality, which they did, and the numbers were the same."
Though its use of technology and location may change, Medaglia added, the inspiration behind the care at Saint Anthony remains the same.
"It's more than just a hospital," he said. "We're focusing on wellness. That's a very big piece for us. We want to make sure that with a young population in our community, this generation coming up, that we can get them more focused on creating a healthy environment."