Heliport approved by City, FAA and IDOT
We are pleased to announce that Children’s Memorial Hospital received final approval from the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics (IDOT) to operate a rooftop heliport at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (opening in June 2012), the final step in a thorough and comprehensive approval process. An on-site heliport is essential to fulfilling our mission of caring for the region's children.
Process Update
- IDOT approval is the result of a three-year review by internal and external IDOT experts, which included several flights to and from the Lurie Children’s heliport.
- IDOT's decision follows approvals by the City of Chicago and the Federal Aviation Administration.
- Read our news release announcing IDOT's approval of the heliport and the Supplemental Order from IDOT detailing its decision.
Safety first
- Our guiding principle is the safety of the patient, transport team, pilot, flight crew and everyone on the ground.
- For over 20 years, Children’s Memorial has safely operated a
similar heliport at our Lincoln Park campus.
- Our comprehensive heliport planning and design, with safety as the first priority, included extensive study by a team of top helicopter and wind experts who have consulted on heliport projects worldwide. Read more about our analysis.
- Quarterly reports documenting each transport will be shared with the community as provided to our Lincoln Park neighbors now.
View an example of a quarterly helicopter usage report.
When every second counts
- The heliport will be used to receive critically ill and injured children who cannot be transported by ground transportation without threat to the life or condition, and for time-critical organ transplantation.
- Heliport transports to the future rooftop heliport will be used for pediatric treatment of Lurie Children’s patients only.
- Annually, an average of 73 seriously ill or injured children and five organs for life-saving transplantation are transported by helicopter to our Lincoln Park location
- Children are only brought from other hospitals – never from the scene of accidents.
- Doctors have concluded that using an off-site heliport could result in serious harm to the child being transported because of the additional time and physical movement of the medically fragile child.